A Meeting of Tamers
by Lady Geuna
Summary: Re-uploaded, rewritten. There is the Dark World, Dream World, Digital World, Real World, and the Tamer World. But what if Takato of the Tamer World discovers a key that could force all the worlds into one? The very worlds will shift. (AU)
1. Prologue: A matter of worlds...

Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to me. All characters and items within are all based around both the television show and the card game. None of these belong to me. (though I wish they did, like probably everyone else...)

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A/N: This first chapter is meant to be informative, and is very important to the rest of the story. You should read it the whole way through if you can, thought some of you most likely know this information. But, who know?

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Names to know:

Kari:Hikari Kamiya

Matt:Yamato Ishida

TK:Takeru Takaishi 

Rika:Ruki Makino

Henry:Jenrya Lee

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A Meeting Of Tamers

By Lady Geuna

Rated: PG

Summary: There is the Dark World, Dream World, Digital World, Real World, and the Tamer World. But what if Takato of the Tamer World discovers a key that could force all the worlds into one? The balance of the very worlds will shift like no one would've ever expected. 

Another Universe, but mostly canon. Takes place some time before they meet Ryou and the Devas, and before their digimon are able to digivolve to Ultimate.

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"..." speech

'....' thoughts 

/.../ around a SENTENCE will mean a flashback or memory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prologue: A matter of worlds...

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There isn't just one world. There are many. Possibly even thousands. They can only be seen in the form of colored pillars, and exist parallel to each other. They are all in a state of balance, in coexistence. But if one were to be destroyed or harmed, then all the other worlds would eventually suffer the same fate.

A perfect example is the "Digital World" and the "Real World". When the Digital World faced the threat of destruction, the Real World also faced it's own threat of destruction. Environmental disasters began to occur all over the Real World, until the ones known as the Digidestined somehow crossed over into the Digital World. After a long, hard struggle, the threat there was eliminated, and both worlds were saved.

At other times, the worlds can clash. The "Dark World" crossed over to the Digital World through the use of "human puppet" known as Ichijouji Ken. When a digivice came through his computer, Ken was taken to the Digital World. There he met Akiyama Ryou, a fellow Tag Tamer from yet another world and his future best friend, along with his digimon Veemon. In August of 2000, after meeting Akiyama for the second time, Ichijouji was implanted was Millenniumon's Dark Seed after the evil digimon was destroyed. Ichijouji and Akiyama prevented the digimon for becoming Moon=Millenniumon by Jogress digivolving to Paildramon. This took place a little while after the original Digidestined defeated Armageddonmon and returned home to the Real World. While implanted, Ichijouji was driven mad. 

Because he was so overcome with darkness, Ichijouji opened a dark gate, instead of a digital one, while trying to go back to the Digital World later on. 

This had been a total accident, but it was too late. His digivice was infected with darkness, and thus the first D-3 was created (he wished the D-3 into existence, because the Dark World allows your dark thoughts to come true). The darkness was able to get to Kamiya Hikari, the child of Light, through him. The creatures from the Dark Ocean attempted to take Hikari as their queen. But they did not succeed because of Takaishi Takeru, the child of Hope. He managed to cross between the worlds and save her, due to the bond between their two crests, Hope and Light. The only other times the Dark World has been known to cross over is in the Digital World, in the form of the "Dark Cave". Ishida Yamato, the child of Friendship, and Takenouchi Sora, the child of Love, both nearly "drowned" in their own darkness until their friends came and saved them. Ichijouji didn't have anyone to protect him before he was consumed by his own darkness.

Oikawa Yukito opened a gate to another world, also. This was the "Dream World", were whatever you wish for would come true. It is the opposite of the Dark World, which can bring your dark thoughts to life. 

There are even some worlds that are very much alike. 

In one of these worlds, an organization has formed, Hypnos, dedicated to the study of the Digital World and the creatures that inhabit it. They have developed special technology to detect those digimon who 

try to enter into the Real World. Their job now was to prevent them from "Bio-emerging". Deleting them before they can enter. Now and then they would miss one of course, but that would be taken care of by the three children in Tokyo; Lee Jenrya, Makino Ruki, Matsuda Takato, and their digimon.

It is the one called Takato who will cause two worlds to clash once again, and not just with the Digital World...

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Somewhere in Tokyo, a man stares intently at a huge computer screen. He wasn't very happy. Though, being happy was a very rare occurrence for him lately... Especially these days.

Even with all the knowledge, resources, and information Hypnos had acquired, they _still_ couldn't understand these children, these "Tamers". 

What made them different from any other child? What is it that gives them the power, the _right_, to control a digimon? To make it "digivolve"? Walking data was not something to ignore, especially when it's with a bunch of little, idiotic kids. So _why_? Couldn't those children see the danger of data walking around amongst people?

Network Administrator Yamaki sneered, rubbing his temples. He needed some sleep...

These questions still plague them, unable to find the answers they need. All they can do is keep close watch on these three "Tamers", and the people they know. In time, they would grow tired of this pointless game they played, and the creatures would be deleted. 

Simple. 

However, there was little chance of it happening. 

But there were more important things to be doing at the moment, it seems. The computer had detected an anomaly. 

No, _five_ anomalies. Hm, that was a few more than usual...

"Sir."

He adjusted his sunglasses, carefully studying the incoming data. "What is it?" Yamaki continued to open and closing his lighter. It was an annoying habit, but he now found it somewhat relaxing. It was better than "hitting the bottle" or chain smoking, anyway. At least it won't send him to an early grave.

"There's something wrong with the system, we can't get a secure tracer lock on it. The anomalies are on a different wave link, I think. But they're all definitely wild ones."

"It'll be too dangerous for the system to try to route the data. We can't risk circumventing the safety grid to these..."

That wasn't good. "I don't care what you have to do." He snapped the lighter shut and clinked it in his fist. "I want them destroyed!"

"Yes sir!"

"Another has entered into the system. It's like the other anomalies. We're trying to intercept, but the other signals are interfering! We can't trace it!"

"Sir! They will bioemerge in 23 seconds! We can't stop them!"

"The system won't respond! Yugoth's program cannot be activated!"

"It's breaching the system!"

The screen started to go haywire. Random patterns of 0's and 1' danced on the screen. Then other numbers began to join in with the chaos. 

He heard his cell phone ring. Not intending on answering it, he just took a glance of the main screen. He was almost startled to discover _it_ was going crazy as well. 

Everything electronic. 

Yamaki let out a frustrated curse, slapping his fists down into the control panel. "This can't happen! Shut that thing down!! _Now_!!"

"We're trying! There's something wrong with the system! It's going berserk!!"

And all at once, everything went black...

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At about 10:39 p.m., Eastern time, a electrical surge ran through the city of Tokyo. There was no rational explanation that could be given, nor was a probable cause found. But for about seventy seconds, every electrical item within the city suffered some sort of breakdown. Then for four minutes afterwards, everything shut down.

Unbeknownst to anyone, a similar occurrence happened at the exact same time in Hokkaido up north.

And halfway across town, in Shinjuku, in the middle of a skywalk overlooking the bay, a digital field explodes into existence.

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To be continued in Chapter One: Processing... Catalyst. Error.

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A/N: Sooo, what do you think!? ^_^ ?? Does anyone want me to continue? PLEASE review. Thanks

Geuna~


	2. Processing... /ERROR/

Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to me. All characters and items within are all based around both the television show and the card game. None of these belong to me. (though I wish they did, like probably everyone else...)

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This is my second fanfic. My other is "College, The Hell It Can Be..." I hope you like this.

A/N: Oookay, some of you are probably wondering what's going on, huh? Well, in the next two chapters, you'll get the idea. This is actually going at a faster pace than my other fic. Oy. So busy, busy, busy. Graduating this year. But I still find time to write.

Enjoy ^_^

Geuna~

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A Meeting Of Tamers

By Lady Geuna

Rated: PG

Summary: There is the Dark World, Dream World, Digital World, Real World, and the Tamer World. But what if Takato of the Tamer World discovers a key that could force all the worlds into one? The balance of the very worlds will shift like no one would've ever expected. 

Another Universe, but mostly canon. Takes place some time before they meet Ryou and the Devas, and before their digimon are able to digivolve to Ultimate.

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"..." speech

'....' thoughts 

/.../ around a SENTENCE will mean a flashback or memory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Names to know:

Rika:Ruki Makino

Henry:Jenrya (Jen) Lee

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Chapter One: Processing... /ERROR/

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It was about 10:24 p.m. at the Matsuda residence. Matsuda Takato camped out under his blankets. It was pretty late, and his parents had gone to bed early. But he couldn't sleep, his thoughts kept him awake that night. So he instead lay there, studying his assortment of digimon playing cards in the dark with the help of a flashlight. He wished he didn't have to go to school tomorrow. Then maybe he could visit Guilmon and play with him all day long.

But nooo, school came first. _Sigh. _It was an injustice.

Looking at his Greymon booster card, he smiled. 

There was nothing like being a _real_ Tamer. It was so intense! And he'd met a tone of new friends because of it. Guilmon was his best friend now. There was Culumon, who was always... pleasant(???). Lee and Terriermon were really cool. Ruki and Renamon were... 

... interesting.... 

Intimidating.

........

__

Scary.

His mouth twisted into a small frown at the thought. There was nothing Takato could do to break Ruki's ice. She was so closed up. Ruki _had_ opened up recently, not really enough so that Takato could make friends with her. She said she wants it that way, but somehow he got the feeling that she was just really lonely. Ruki had to let people in instead of pushing them away before they had a chance to even _try_ be friendly. At least she has Renamon as a friend... Seemingly her _only_ friend...

He aimed the flashlight's beam over, illuminating his red D-Ark. 

A Tamer.

The light began to flicker. "Aw, come ooon." Letting out a grunt of annoyance, he tried to position himself so he could easily slap the thing against his palm. That usually fixed it. That's how his dad fixed things, anyway. He'd said, "Smacking something is the _best_ way to jump start a car or a computer!" And this applied to almost every electrical appliance ever made.

Unfortunately, Takato had never seen his father succeed using that method. Well, with anything other than a _flashlight_, anyway.

But as he moved into position to whack the contraption, the flashlight slipped from his hands and rolled toward the side of the bed that was against the wall. He bit his lip as it clunked, loudly falling into the floor, noisily banging on the wall in the process. After a moment of holding his breath, he was realized that his parents hadn't woken up.

"Whew," he exclaimed in relief, then reached into the darkness after it. 

Feeling around, his hand came in contact with what he thought was his flashlight. But when he picked it up be discovered it was something else. 

"Huh?"

Takato felt the surface of the object, which definitely wasn't his flashlight. This thing was flat, had buttons, and maybe plastic. It wasn't his D-Ark. _That_ device was still next to him. Then what...?

He reached back down and groped around for his flashlight again. He was successful in finding it this time, he snatched it up and started slapping it against his palm. He kept on doing this until the light flickered and came back on. The object was illuminated. 

"My... Zero Two(02)Tag Tamers game," he muttered. "WonderSwan." He had misplaced it a while ago. It was one of the first electronic digimon games ever made. The main characters were Ichijouji Ken and Akiyama Ryou, with their digimon Wormmon and Veemon. The story was about their first adventures in the Digital World. Ken is really young in this game, unlike he is in the TV series. 

"Just like when they fought Millenniumon," he whispered, awed. He'd always loved the whole concept of digimon, from the story to the monsters. They were just so _cool_! 

Then something dawned on Takato.

Ken and Ryou where both Tag TAMERS. Maybe not exactly the same, but pretty close... Just like him. Hmm, there seems to be a big difference between being a Tamer in real life and in the game...

His fingers closed tightly around his D-Ark. 

Ken and Ryou where both Tamers, but they could go to the Digital World. Takato had never really tried, so maybe he could go, too!

Excited with his new found "revelation", Takato threw his blankets away and tiptoed over to his computer. He clicked on the power switch, placing his Tamer game on the keyboard. Turning on his desk lamp, Takato eyed the red and white device he held.

Wow. What if he really could do it? What if he really _could_ go to the Digital World? Would he save it from certain destruction? Could he jump in, bold and daring like Daisuke and save the day? 

There! Computer loaded!

He held up his D-Ark and whispered as to not wake his parents. "Digital World here I come. Digiport open!"

Silence.

"Digiport open," he repeated, this time with a hint of pleading. But still, nothing. He tried again, but still there was nothing he could do. The screen remained silent, and the screensaver flashed on. 

Takato was crestfallen. 

"Shoot..."

Figures. He should've known he wouldn't have been able to open a gate with his D-Ark. 

He sighed sadly, starring it the device longingly.

He should've known... 

The only things he could do with it was make Guilmon digivolve to Growlmon and so forth, and power up Guilmon with playing cards and.... Wait. Playing cards? _That's_ _it_!!

The boy rushed over to his bed and grabbed his card box. He turned the whole thing upside-down, dumping out every card he had, and began to rummage through the pile. He was looking for a particular card. It was an item card... _ha_! There it was! He grabbed it out, smiling brilliantly.

"Bingo!"

He walked back over to the computer, slower this time, but his gut was still tight with anticipation. He nudged the mouse a bit so the screen saver flashed out, then held the card up so that the glow of the screen illuminated it.

Takato starred at the card again, the light of the computer screen causing the relatively shiny item to flash dully. 

"The digiport card." 

The item card was just like the others he and his friends used. In the center of the picture box was a colorful digiport, just like the one in season 02 of the TV series.

He held the D-Ark and item card next to each other. This time a wave of nervousness hit him like a tone of bricks.

What if this did work? What if this card could open a gate? Would he really have to fight evil digimon, just like in the TV show? Would he be like Daisuke? Did he even _have_ the courage to do it...? He wasn't so sure... Yeah, he'd faced a few extremely scary things before.... But a whole _Digital_ _World_ full of possible enemies and evil digimon who could be out to get him...?

All these insecurities came to him, and for the first time he had no way of dealing with them.

He glanced at the clock, using it as a distraction from his own thoughts. 

It was 10:36 p.m.. If he wanted to do something, _anything_, he might as well do it now. Great! What a time to get butterflies in his stomach! Hmpf! Shows you how brave Takato really is... No...

No! He WAS brave!

Swallowing his doubts, he fitted the tip of the card in the D-Ark's card slot.

He was going to do it.

He wasn't afraid.

No matter what, he was. not. going. to. be. _afraid_!

He squeezed his eyes closed, heart pounding in his ears. With a grunt of effort, that of which was more metal then physical, he slashed the card through with one quick motion. 

"Digiport open!!"

.........

..... nothing....

Takato began to breath again, having just realized that he'd been holding it the whole time. He had mixed feelings of both relief and disappointment. The digiport card drifted soundlessly to the floor at his feet. 

A knocking at his bedroom door made him nearly jump out of his skin.

"Takato, are you up?"

It was his dad....

Takato held his breath again, starring at the door. He'd been way too loud after all...

He was just standing there for a moment, afraid to move, until he could hear footsteps leaving in the opposite direction. He dad was going back to his room.

"Whew!" He smiled at the door. 

Good old dad, always letting him off easy. Good thing that wasn't his mom. She was _way_ harder on him!

The last thing he was expecting was to hear was his D-Ark beep. He glanced down in surprise, eyes widening. The device had let out a single _beep_, and now that the moment had past he wasn't sure if it have happened at all.

"N-Nani...?" 

Just in case, he looked carefully at his device. There were words on the screen... When he moved the arrow button, another word moved onto the screen as well, then another, all making a very short sentence. He squinted, making sure he was reading correctly.

"Processing.... Data...? Error? What?"

What was this?

His head shot up as his lamp light began to flicker erratically. Takato noticed that the flashlight he'd left on his bed was acting up as well, also flickering. The computer seemed to follow in their example, buzzing with noisy static. Random patterns of 0's and 1's began to fill up the screen. Sparks flew from the edges of the glass, causing him to leap back in fright, bringing his arms over his face as reflex. 

He let of a cry of panic as the electricity seemed to crawl forward across the keyboard. When the static hit his Tag Tamers game, all at once the dangerous looking sparks converged into one strong beam that didn't really look like electricity at all. The light began to feed itself into the games tiny playing screen. It began to rattle and shack wildly.

Takato's D-Ark let out another beep, dragging his attention away from his computer. He looked closely, realizing that it read something different now. 

'Transfer Processing'... What _was_ this!?

It beeped again, and this time it was followed by another. The noise progressed, until it sounded almost like a heartbeat. Then the beat went faster, and faster... and faster....

A bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. Placing a hand over his heart, Takato could feel it beating away madly, almost in tune with his device. It all made him remember something Lee had told him. Lee himself had read it out of a book somewhere. "_After all, the only thing you have to fear is the unknown. The unknown is the root of all fear._" 

And for Takato, _this_ certainly went into that category. How are you supposed to react when everything around you looks like it's going to explode in your face?

All he could do was stare at his computer screen, bite his lip, and voice exactly what he was thinking and feeling at that moment.

"Uh-oh...."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lee Jenrya was slowly dragged out of his deep slumber by the incessant sound of his D-Ark beeping. The device was lying right next to his head, so it became _very_ annoying. His eyes widened when he saw that the screen was glowing. He clumsily reached on his hand and grabbed at it, holding it up to his face.

""Transfer"...," he mumbled sleepily. "What...?

Terriermon also mumbled something before rolling over next to him, opening his eyes a bit. "What is it, Lee? I was having a good nights sleep... A nice dream, too..."

Lee sighed, sitting up and putting his partner on his lap. "Not now, Terriermon. There's something going on. Do you know what "Transfer Processing" means?"

His rabbit digimon blinked at him, looking so baffled you'd think Lee had spoken in French. "No... I can't say I do. Is that what it's saying...?

"Yeah." His eyebrows creased as the beeping noise got faster and faster. "Something very wrong..." He stood and headed for the phone. He could barely make out the sound of J-pop coming from his radio, which he must've left on before he fell asleep.

Terriermon leaped from his lap as he did so, landing on the floor next to the bed. The digimon watched him intently. "Who are ya called, Lee?"

"Takato." He picked up the phone, listening to the dial tone for a moment then began dialing in the number. "Maybe he'll-," he stopped suddenly and winced as the phone exploded with a loud, screeching electric noise. He gasped and slammed the phone back in it cradle, his ears ringing. He tried turning on his lamp, but once he did, he found it flicking on and off erratically. His radio giving of static noises, too.

"That's going on!?" Was it some sort of electrical meltdown of something? How can this all happen at once!? Lee noticed that his alarm clock (which _wasn't_ plugged directly into the wall) as it began to go haywire as well. "That's odd. How can that be effected when it's not even plugged into anything...?

"Lee!!"

It was Terriermon. The little digimon had gone out onto his balcony, seated on the railing. Lee hated it when Terriermon did that, because he was always afraid he would fall. Sure, he could fly, but they _were_ pretty high up.

"Terriermon, get down from there," he insisted, walking outside after his friend. "Wha-"

"Look," Terriermon interrupted, pointing as the other high rise buildings. 

Lee blinked a few times, then rubbed both his eyes with his palms for good measure. Nope, he wasn't seeing things.

In every build he could see the insanity of lights turning on and off. The sight of it made him dizzy. Soon electric advertisements began to do the same. Lee heard the sound of car tiers screeching and horns honking, metal crunching as cars slammed into each other. He looked down to see traffic at a stand still. He couldn't really tell from this high up, but the thought he saw the electrical walking signs and street lights flashing on and off rapidly.

The beeping of his green D-Ark was almost nonexistent over the sound of chaos below. Lee's head was swimming with questions, but most of all _confusion_. Terriermon also seemed to be just as dumbfounded.

Then all at once, the lights went out...

The city was dead...

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Makino Ruki paid no attention to her D-Ark, she just letting the blue piece of plastic beep itself away. It was only until it stopped beeping that she glanced up from the book she'd been reading. But she figured, after all the lights just suddenly went nuts, that maybe it was worth of peek. Heck, even the light function on her watch couldn't work because _it_ broke down. Not that she minded sitting there in the light of a burning candle...

Shrugging, she reached over the table and picked up the object. The rhythmic beeping had slowed to a normal pace. She glanced at the screen, expecting to see the usual digimon data of whatever. But instead she found words..

""Transfer Completed"..." Her eyes narrowed before she looked up. "Renamon."

An cue, Renamon melted from the shadows. "Hai, Ruki...?"

Ruki didn't bother to glance back at her partner. It didn't really matter. "Have you noticed something odd? Do you feel anything?"

Renamon nodded.

"What have you found."

"There is something wrong with the city. I don't know what it is, but I don't think it's natural." She closed her shinning electric blue eyes and shrugged. "I am not yet familiar with this sort of occurrence."

Ruki couldn't help but smile. "It's called a "black out", I think, Renamon..."

Renamon shook her head. "Whatever this is, it doesn't feel right." She opened her eyes again, two glowing slits floating in the darkness. "I can sense it."

She nodded. "Is it something you think we should check out?"

"....."

"Well then." She stood and grabbed her brown jacket from the floor, slipping into the sleeves in one fluid motion. "I think we should be going then." It was odd, having a friend like Renamon. To have a friendship were no words were needed...

Before she left, Ruki blew out her candle, plunging the room in the same darkness that had consumed the rest of the city.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Takato was shivering, in the dark, and paralyzed with fear. 

He'd done this, hadn't he? It was bad enough that his computer got fried, maybe, but the whole _house_!?

It was totally pitch black now except for the bright glow emitted by his D-Ark's screen. He used that light so that he could see the damage that was caused to his computer. 

He winced. 

Well, it wasn't too bad... It was smoking, but that didn't mean it was a _bad_ thing, right? 

Right...?

Little did he know that the whole city had suffered such effects.

He let out a groan of horror when he saw that his Tamers game was totally fried. It looked like a lump of burning black plastic. Even his room smelt of something burning, and it was horribly strong. The only thing he could think of to do was grab his pillow case to wrap the thing in before chucking it out the window. 

Step #1 to fix the problem, solved. Step #2, find some air freshener. But that could wait.

Takato shut his window tightly, shielding against the chilly November air that wafted in the burnt smell from the alley. After locking the window, he looked at his D-Ark again.

'Transfer Completed,' it read.

"Ooookay....," he said lowly, sweatdropping. 

This was _not_ good at all.

Maybe he should call Lee...? Yeah! Jen would know what to do! 

Takato quickly snatched up his phone, only to find that it was totally dead. He didn't even hear a dial tone.

He lifted his face toward the ceiling and let out an exasperated moan.

"A can't believe-," he was interrupted by the sound of more beeping. Oh, great... He slowly looked back at the screen, expecting the worst. More random words, most likely. But he got something different this time. 

"A digimon!"

Hurriedly, Takato grabbed his jacket and his goggles, dashing out of his room. As he ran down the hall to get his shoes, his mother came rushing out through her bedroom door and neither crashed into him.

"Takato," she gasped, startled and clasping her hand over her heart. "What are you doing? Do you know what happened!? There's just..."

"Sorry Mom, gotta go!" Takato then rushed past her, screeching to a halt by the front door and sitting down to yank on and tie his shoes.

"Just _what _do you think you're doing at this time of night, young man!?"

Takato flinched at his mother's tone. "I, um, LEE said he needed me to come over! _Yeah_! He said it was a real emergency and that I should get over to his place as soon as possible!"

Mrs. Matsuda's mouth dropped open. "Lee lives half way across town! And you're still in your pajamas!" She gestured to Takato's present state of dress. A two piece blue pajama set with red lightning bolts all over it. It made him blush, but he kept on lacing his shoes. "And do you have a beeper!? What is that noise? You're to young to have things like that!"

Takato made sure she didn't see his D-Ark, which was still beeping. It would probably continue to do so until he and Guilmon found the detected digimon in question, whatever it was. In his excitement, he almost forgot all that happened in the past few minutes. "No! It's just a toy, Mom! A virtual pet, you know!? I think I forgot to feed it again." He giggled nervously, avoiding eye contact at all costs. "I _really_ need to hurry, so..." He was beginning to think that sneaking out was the best thing to have done, but it was too late now...

"Don't be crazy, Takato! It far to late! How can you-," the sound of a loud _THUMP_ was heard, followed my an equally loud yelp of pain. "Honey, I told you to stay put! It isn't safe walking around in the dark!"

"I think I broke my toooe," Mr. Matsuda whined. There was the sound of something breaking, most likely a lamp. "DANG IT!!!"

Mrs. Matsuda sweatdropped and tried to ignored her husband, determined to scold Takato for his actions and to get him to _stay_. "Wait! How do you know you have to go over to Lee's?"

Takato had already finished adjusting his goggles and opened the front door. "He called! I'll be back as soon as I can! Don't lock me out! Love you!"

"Really...? Bu-WAIT!! How could he call, the phones aren't working!? The phone didn't _ring_!"

He didn't hear her, or better yet, wasn't listening. "BYE MOM!"

__

SLAM!

Mrs. Matsuda's jaw dropped as she heard her son's footsteps echo outside the door, the sound becoming fainter by the second.

"T-Takato...?"

"Hooneeeeey, I need some help in here...."

Mrs. Matsuda shook her head, annoyed, before carefully making her way back into the bedroom to help her incompetent husband.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Yamaki.... sir."

"What....," came the grunt like reply from the darkness.

"I'm sorry, sir, but the six signals.... they all bioemerged before the system shutdown.... There was nothing we could do."

"I see." 

All of them stood in total darkness. There was no natural light, or any light for that matter, to help them see. Not that the room had any windows, and even if it did, it was nighttime outside. They all had no choice but to stand where they were, for risk of bumping into something and hurting themselves.

It was rather humiliating, actually.

Then all at once the system was back on. All light came back, and the electric hum the master computer returned to his ears. Even the screen on Yamaki's cell phone had gone back to normal. The time read 10:45 p.m.. 

"Systems checked, sir. There's nothing wrong as far a I can see."

"A previous data is still stored in their proper files. There is no evidence of a virus of any kind."

Yamaki sneered. "Or course it wasn't a virus. Nothing can penetrate into this system?"

"But there must be something wrong. The energy reserves didn't kick in while they're still there. I'm going to try and..."

Yamaki stopped listening at that point. He watched the screen, fighting back the urge to curse madly. He knew what the indicators meant. Scanners had totally lost the signals, so they now had no idea of there they were.

This... Was not going well at all...

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And so it begins...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued in Chapter Two: Transferring... /Data Downloading/

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!! I'M BEGGING!!! ^_^'''


	3. Transferring... /Data Downloading/

Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to me. All characters and items within are all based around both the television show and the card game. None of these belong to me. (though I wish they did, like probably everyone else...)

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Geuna: (G-u-na) ^_^'' In case you're wondering how to say it.

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A Meeting Of Tamers

By Lady Geuna

Rated: PG

Summary: There is the Dark World, Dream World, Digital World, Real World, and the Tamer World. But what if Takato of the Tamer World discovers a key that could force all the worlds into one? The balance of the very worlds will shift like no one would've ever expected. 

Another Universe, but mostly canon. Takes place some time before they meet Ryou and the Devas, and before their digimon are able to digivolve to Ultimate.

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"..." speech

'....' thoughts 

/.../ around a SENTENCE will mean a flashback or memory.

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Translations: 

Daijoubu-it's all right... don't worry about it..

Daijoubu?(in question form)-are you okay?

"ne" at the beginning of a sentence, means basically "Hey...." "ne" at the end of a sentence means pretty much "..., right?"

nani- what?

Hai- yes

Iya- NO, in an extreme way, as you would say when going NOOOOO!!! AHHHHH!

lie- is no as in a calm, simple, "no"

Jogress- I'm not sure what it means in really, but it's a term that means combination, like DNA digivolving.

Honto?- really?

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Chapter Two: Transferring... /Data Downloading/

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It was a warm summer afternoon in Tamachi. The sun was shining, it wasn't humid at all, and a certain blue haired boy sat cross-legged on his desk chair, typing furiously.

"Ken, honey, there's someone on the phone for you."

Ichijouji Ken glanced at his phone, then called out to his mother. "I didn't here it ring."

"I was on the other line. Gomen."

He smiled at his mother's meek, quiet tone. "Daijoubu!" Ken saved and shut down all the extra windows on his computer. He'd just downloaded a few songs from the internet. Clicking the sound box on, he double checked the commands to see if it was working properly. The machine had been acting up on him lately. Maybe he would need to replace a few of the part?

Ken leaned over and grabbed up his phone, only to find his mother in a "deep" conversation on the other line. "It's okay, Mama, I got it..."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ken," Mrs. Ichijouji said cheerfully. "I'll let you two boys talk now. It was nice talking to you, dear."

"Yeah," came the callers voice. "Nice talking to you, too, Ichijouji-san." The line clicked, indicating that his mom had hung up. On the other line the boy said, "Hey."

"Hi, Daisuke-kun." He heard the sound of what was probably Jun banging on a door, screaming. Ken figured he shouldn't ask directly, but he'd find out eventually, he always did. Daisuke always prided himself on the number of ways he could anger his older sister to a point of fiery rage. "What's up?"

Daisuke paused for a second. "Well... I sort of ticked off my sister again. I don't really know how this time... Anyway, are you coming to the Digidestined picnic today?"

"Yeah! It's not something any of us should miss, right?" The twelve of them had very little time to see each other during the school years. In the summer, they would have constant get-togethers to catch up. Ken especially loved these get-togethers because unlike everyone else, he lived across the lake, while everyone else lived together in Odaiba. Hm, what luck...

"Maybe, but I heard that Willis might come."

"Willis...? Willis....." He thought for a second, then it hit him. "Isn't that the kid you meet in Colorado a while back?"

"That's the guy!" His voice became distant, like he was holding the phone away from his mouth. "Jun, will you go away!? I'm trying to have a conversation here!" Then he returned. "Um, sorry. I woke-up the beast, and now it won't go back to _sleep_."

He rolled his eyes, smirking. "I told you..."

Sigh. "Whatever. Hey! Have you heard from Hikari? I've been trying to call her, you know, to tell her about the picnic..."

"Suuure..."

Daisuke let out a grunt of annoyance. Whether or not Daisuke still had a crush on Hikari was a mystery, even to Ken. He didn't give any signals either way, but Ken didn't really want to ask. "Yeah, and _you_ don't have a crush on Miyako..."

"I do _not_!!" He could feel his face heat up. Miyako was a very delicate subject for him. _No_, he didn't like her _that_ way! Though _everyone_ assumes that the two of them will get married someday. Miyako, too, shares this attitude. "Daisuke, _don't_ start on that subject again..."

After a moment Daisuke brushed Ken's comment off and continued. "_But_ I haven't been able to get a hold of her. Her line's always busy."

"She might be on the net. Why don't you get online?"

"My computer's busted right now, it... had a little accident with my soccer ball when I was juggling in my room..."

Ken smirked. "That's why it's an outdoor sport, Daisuke."

"Says who?" Daisuke snorted jokingly. "Since when do _rules_ matter, Ichijouji?"

Minomon hopped into Ken's lap, blinking up at him. "Is that Daisuke?"

Ken nodded. "Hai."

Daisuke sounded confused. "What?"

"Sorry Daisuke, I was talking to Minomon." 

"Hiii, Daisukeee," Minomon chirped loudly.

"Hi, Minomon," Daisuke yelled back, just as loudly, but not before Ken had moved the ear piece at a safe distance.

"Ken-chan," Minomon whined, turning his attention instantly to his human partner, "I'm huuuungry!"

"You just had six rice balls!"

Daisuke chuckled. "Bottomless pits! I swear!"

"You're telling _me_..." Ken clicked play on the computer and was pleased to hear music drifting smoothly from the speakers. "Is there another computer in your house? I thought there was one in your parents room?"

"Yeah, but I have a feeling Junzilla's going to be guarding my door for a while." Ken could hear Jun scream something at a much higher volume when he said "Junzilla," but it was too muffled to make out. Daisuke gulped audibly, whispering, "I really don't think I should risk it. And that Chibimon of hers is _really_ mean! It tried to pick a fight with Veemon! Can you believe it!?"

Ken narrowed his eyes. "Did Veemon, per chance, _insult_ her Chibimon?"

It was almost as if he could envision Daisuke flinching, then scratching his head. "I don't pay attention to details... Besides! I'm afraid that if I let Veemon try anything, that her Chibimon will start digivolving. You know! They digivolve when pushed into a fight, sometimes. I took a look at Koushiro's computer program thingy, and I've seen what Veemon can digivolve into." He made a shuddering noise. "I'm afraid that it'll either turn into an Ogremon or a Red Veggiemon... But at least I know XV-mon can take 'em both down!" Ken could tell Daisuke was grinning.

That was the thing about having a Jogress partner. Even when talking over the phone, it's as if he's there, standing right next to him.

Ken glanced at his watch. "We're supposed to meet in Odaiba Park at six. It's almost five now. Will you be able to make it?"

"Let's put it this way. I have a digimon and a fire escape, and I'm not afraid to use them. I'll _be_ there."

Ken stopped the music and closed the file. "I should head out now. It takes a while for me to get across the river, and I don't want to make Minomon digivolve all the way to Stingmon." He smiled down at the In-Training digimon in his lap. "People don't like to see larger digimon flying around like that, they'll think he's trying to start trouble. Like that Kuwagamon last week. It nearly gave an old lady a heart attack." Minomon sighed happily as Ken patted him on the head. Sometimes the digimon seemed so much like a cat, especially when he's Wormmon. You'd think he'd learn how to purr.

"Okay. I need to find my soccer ball..." 

"I'm sure Taichi-san will bring one. Or I can bring mine, just in case." Of all the things Daisuke could misplace, the last thing would've been his soccer ball. Ken glanced down at his backpack, which stood ready for him. "I got all my stuff together..."

There was the sound of crashing on the other line. "Aw, dang it! Veemon!!" There was the sound of giggling and Daisuke running with the phone. "Get back heeere," he screamed.

Ken flinch, quickly moving the ear piece away. "Too loud!"

Daisuke finally returned to the line, giggling nervously. "Heehee, gomen! I'll go now, k!?"

He shook his head, sighing. Daisuke could be such a pain. "I'll get online and see if Hikari's there. I'm sure she's probably gone already with Taichi, though. But I'll check. Ja ne, Daisuke."

Minomon jumped up and clamped into the mouth piece. "Bye Daisuke! Bye Veemon!"

There was some noise on the other line, and what Ken thought was Daisuke screaming, "Noooo, not the door! Don't open the door!," before the line clicked. Ken pried Minomon off the phone and put it back in its cradle. Logging onto the net, he said, "Let's go say hi to Hikari, too, ne?" In response Minomon began jumping around happily, landing on his desk top as Ken logged on. Desperately the boy tried to contain the little green ball of energy but he kept on slipping through his fingers. "Will you hold _still_, Minomon!? You might break something!"

Giggling, Minomon jumped onto his desk lamp. He started turning it on and off rapidly, finding it fascinating. Ken found it _very_ annoying.

"Ken," his mom called from outside his door. "Are you alright? I hear things bumping around in there."

"No, Mama. It's just Minomon. I'm fine." He eyed his digimon like a hawk, ready to strike.

While he was still in one location, Ken took the opportunity to snatch the little creature up, leaving the lamp on. "Got you!" He grinned widely, laughing teasingly. "No more sugar for you!" Minomon whined, but Ken just held him tightly to his chest, making sure Minomon couldn't escape. He was about to rub it in when he paused, his eyes glazing over in a far off look....

__

Ken....

Minomon soon stopped his wild flailing and looked up at his friend. Ken was starring out the window now, face blank. "Ne, Ken-chan?" 

Ken blinked, snapping out of it. He looked down questioningly at his digimon. "Hm?"

"Daijoubu?"

"Um, yeah," he said, puzzled. "I just... had the weirdest feeling. I don't know..."

"Maybe you're tired!" He bounced up onto Ken's shoulder. "Chibimon told me that Daisuke once told him that not getting enough sleep will make you go all funny. He says that that's what happened to Daisuke's sister, and you when _you_ were bad. Oh.... jotto matta! He said Daisuke said that the reason _YOU_ sometimes acted funny was because of all the hairspray you used... 

Ken's left eye was twitching slightly. "He did, did he?"

He nodded. "What's "hairspray"?"

"I'll explain another time..."

Minomon started babbling excitedly, "And he _also_ says-"

"Minomon! Really. That's okay. Please, no details..." He hunched over slightly, donning a rather sinister look on his face. 'I'm going to talk to Daisuke about _that_ later this afternoon,' he thought. But right not, he had something else to do.

He was logged on, and now he brought up the AIM screen.

Screen Name: KindKaiser

Password: *******

Sign On

He paused as system connected, verified his name and password, and started the service. Ken looked down as Minomon and raised an eyebrow. "Um... you think I should change me screen name...?"

Minomon didn't say anything, too absorbed with the flashing pictures on the screen. "Look! Hikari!"

Ken saw Hikari's screen name listed as "online". He double clicked and opened a chatting window.

KindKaiser signed on at 5:02:47 PM

KindKaiser: Hi

Hikari02: Hi, Ken! 

KindKaiser: I'm talking to you for Daisuke. He's been tr

He stopped when he realized the computer wasn't typing for him anymore. He frowned and tried again, tapping at a few keys randomly, but it wouldn't work. But Hikari was able to respond.

Hikari02: What's up? 

Hikari02: .....

Hikari02: Ken? Are you there? 

He grimaced, frustrated. Stupid machine. 

Ken checked on his internet connection to find that he was still on. He then picked up the phone to see if his mother had accidentally picked up the phone and messed up his connection, but he found the line totally silent. Usually when you get on the internet and pick up the phone while logged on, you hear a loud screeching noise. Confused, he was about to hang up when he thought he heard a faint beeping noise on the other end. Curious, be pressed the phone back his ear and listened. Where's that beeping coming from?

"Hello?" 

The beeping continued, and there was no answer. 

"That's weird...."

Ken hung up the phone, thoroughly baffled. He was about to close the AIM window and try again, when something appeared on the screen. An icon popped up in the lower left-hand corner. It flickered in and out of focus, which was not something an icon should be doing unless it's a "animated GIF" or something. But he didn't remember having an icon like that there... He tried clicking on it, but that didn't do anything.

"Nani?"

Minomon blinked at him. "What is it, Ken-chan?"

"I don't know, Minomon. It may be a virus or something." He really hoped it wasn't a virus. But Ken _knew_ computer viruses, and had made a few very vicious ones himself at one time. But this wasn't like any virus he'd ever seen. And Ken had a "computer virus protection program" hooked up. A virus shouldn't be able to get through.

Ken let out a cry of shock as a line of 0's and 1's began to rapidly form on his screen. 

He stood, knocking his chair to the floor, ignoring the loud crashing sound it made on impact. "Oh no, I think it _is_ a virus!" In his panic he hardly noticed as his lamp flickered on and off.

He took a closer look at the shape of the icon on the screen. It was colorful, and the shape.... It looked almost like...

"A digiport!?"

Suddenly all the electrical appliances in his room shutdown at once, but his computer remained on. He saw the digital numbers on his clock go black. His lamp shut down. Ken gasped and spun around, trying to understand exactly was what causing all this. 

Both he and Minomon let out cries of surprise as the computer screen exploded with a blinding light.

A moment later, Mrs. Ichijouji knocked on her son's door. "Ken? Are you alright, honey?"

"What is it, Ichijouji-san," her husbands Bakumon (In America: Tapirmon) asked.

"I don't know, I thought I heard Ken." 

Her Leafmon blinked up at her, worried. "Why did all the lights go out...? A black out?"

She knocked again, louder. "I don't know... Ken?" Silence. "Ken? Minomon? Daijoubu?" She opened the door slowly to peer inside. "Ken?" She gasped when she saw Ken's computer. The screen was smoking, but there were no fire or sparks as far as she could see, and the computer was _on_. She carefully inched forward, viewing the words "System Error" on the screen. In a second, those words flashed out to say "Transfer Complete."

But the important thing was that both Ken and Minomon were gone.... Ken's bag still resting against his desk.

Panicked, Mrs. Ichijouji rushed to the phone to call her husband, only to find that the line of dead.

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Daisuke had hung up on Ken a minute ago, and he was now looking down the fire escape, sighing loudly. "Ah _man_, this gets older every time, you know?"

"Sorry I almost opened the door, Daisuke," Veemon whispered, looking pouty.

Daisuke smiled, winking. "Daijoubu, daijoubu! Just turn back into Chibimon and you'll make this a lot easier."

Veemon complied, and in moments he became Chibimon. His then hopped over to Daisuke excitedly as he began to open the window. "Fun! Fun!"

"Keep it _down_," he insisted. "Jun might hear you and try to cut us off."

"Right!" 

Sigh. "Just hang on, okay? We'll be late if we don't hurry." Daisuke was just about to stick his leg out the window when a noise caught his attention... "Hey, what's that?"

"What's what?"

__

Beeeep!... 

There was that noise again! Chibimon must've heard it too this time, because he was looking around, confused. "Where's it coming from, Daisuke?"

Daisuke didn't really know, but he was going to find out before he left. He walked back to the middle of the room, looking around. Looking for something out of place, and then...

"Look, Daisuke! You're computer works again!"

Daisuke blinked... He hadn't been expecting that. But when he looked at his computer, he found it to be true. It was on, but the screen was totally blank. He walked over to it, trying to figure out what was going on. "What do you suppose...?" Then he was something. A small, colorful icon in the middle of the screen. "Huh?" He tried moving the mouse a few times, but didn't do anything. There was no arrow controller. "Maybe I should ask Ken, or Koushiro..."

He jumped when the screen flickered, then lines of numbers began to fill the screen. 0's and 1's all filed their way unevenly across the screen until it was totally covered. Chaos was breaking all over the room, his cloak blinking madly, his stereo letting out horrible static noise. 

Chibimon climbed up onto his shoulder, looking worried. "What's happening, Daisuke?"

Daisuke didn't know for sure, but he almost didn't _want_ to know. As a sudden thought, he decided to shutdown the computer. But when he reached for the power switch, a nasty shock ripped through his arm, and he cried out, stumbling back.

Chibimon was calling out desperately to him, Daisuke could tell, but he couldn't make out what his digimon was saying due to the ringing in his ears.

Then suddenly, there was a huge burst of light from the computer screen. Daisuke fell back into the carpet, lifting his arms to shield his eye against the brightness, but then all at once to light was gone. The room would've been pitch dark if it hadn't been for the light shinning in through the open window. When his ears finally stopped ringing he carefully got to his feet, clutching his right arm to his chest. He had been shocked badly, but he'd live.

Then he remembered. Chibimon had been on his shoulder when he fell. "Chibimon! Are you hurt?"

Silence...

"Chibimon...?" Even in the darkness, Chibimon was nowhere in sight... "Where are you...? Chibimon!?" He took his blue D-3 from his pocket and checked for a signal, but he found none. At a glance, Daisuke saw that there was something new on the screen. The computer itself was smoking, but it was obviously still working... There were words...

"System Error," it read. And moments later, these words flashed out to reveal "Transfer Completed"....

Then the computer went dead, just as it was supposed to be all along...

He glanced back down at his D-3, and Daisuke could feel his own dread building up. "Oh no... Chibimon..."

At his door, he could hear someone pounding. It was Jun. "Daisuke!? Daisuke, are you in there!? What happened!? Are you alright!?"

Daisuke dashed for the door, wrenching it open. Sure enough, Jun and her Chibimon stood there. Jun look particularly perturbed as she said, "What did you do!? What happened to all the light-"

"I don't care," Daisuke screamed, causing Jen to stop, shocked. "Chibimon! Chibimon's disappeared!"

Before Jun could ever respond to this, he had made a dash for the front door...

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In the same town restaurant near the Hokkaido workers fields, a young man stares blankly at a small television set, transfixed. There were very few people in the restaurant with him. It was getting really cold outside this time of year near the mountains, and must people liked to stay indoors. Rei, an older acquaintance of his, was working there now.

Ryou had grown up in Hokkaido. He did part time work in the fields, during the summer. Luckily though, it was fall, and that meant high school. And he _liked_ school, after all. His computer skills were really improving, and hopefully he could go to a really good college if he kept up his good work... Most people would die for his ability to work with computers.

Another part of him only wished to return to the Digital World....

Rei peeked into her oven to check on the cake she was making. She smiled warmly at him when she noticed his down expression. "Cheer up, Ryou. It's not the end of the world. What's wrong with you today?" 

Ryou blinked, looking up from the television for the first time. "Oh... um, just bored, I guess..."

She shot him a look that made him cringe and laugh at the same time. "You'd better head up. Being bored is no reason to be down like that!"

He snorted, tracing his finger along the rim of his drinking glass. Leaning on elbow on the counter, he bent forward on the stool and rested his head on his hand. "Sure..."

Rei shrugged and snapped the oven door shut, throwing her oven mitts aside. "Well, you are in a bad mood, huh?" She waited for his usually good natured laugh, but he didn't offer one. "Come on, Ryou-kun," she insisted gently, "don't be like that. You need to be more cheerful. You're getting to be so serious."

They both watched as another bunch of customers stood and left, leaving Ryou and Rei alone.

She cursed under her breath. "Not many customers, these days... Hey, I'll be right back. I'm not sure if I have anymore soy drinks in stock and I'm going to check, okay?" 

Ryou nodded and she walked into the back of the room. Soon he heard the sound of a door closing.

He frowned when he glanced down at his duffel bag, something moving around inside of it. Soon, the head of Monodramon poked his head out. "Is she gone?"

Ryou smiled. "Yeah, but you shouldn't come out, Monodramon. She might come back."

"But I want to watch TV," he begged, pouting.

He sighed, looking toward the back of the restaurant for any signs of Rei. When he didn't see her, he quickly bent down and picked up Monodramon, setting him down on the counter before the television. "Happy?" Monodramon laughed happily in response.

But even though he'd been with Monodramon for so long, Ryou often wondered how Veemon was doing... During their second meeting Ken and Wormmon, his digivice had turned into a D-3, and they had... "Jogressed"? Yeah, that's what it's called. It's seemed so long ago that the memory's were beginning to fade. And from time to time is was almost as if Ryou could still feel Ken's heart beating with his... But after their second meeting, Ken was hurt badly, and they never saw each other again. Ryou suffered the some very effects from getting separated from Ken, but the feelings of discomfort and emptiness eventually went away... And as for Veemon... Ryou wondered if he ever found his real partner... And Ken....

He wondered how Ken was doing now. 

Had Veemon forgotten him...? Had they both forgotten...?

"Hey, Monodramon?"

Monodramon looked up at him, smiling. "Hai?"

"..... Um.... Never mind..." Maybe it wasn't a good idea to ask about his old partner.... But Ryou had this weird feeling. 

He didn't know where it came from, it was just _there_... It was familiar yet alien at the same time... What...?

"Daijoubu, Ryou?"

"I'm find," he insisted gently, placing his hand over his chest, rubbing unconsciously. It wasn't that his chest was hurting, but he felt weird... "Just dejà vu or something."

"What's a "dejà vu"?"

He handed the gray creature a rice roll that Rei had given him earlier. He wasn't hunger, and from his experience, digimon were _always_ hungry. "It's sort of like a flash back or something. You feel like you've lived that one moment already. Like that moment had repeating itself. Do you understand?"

Monodramon nodded his head reluctantly while eating, devouring the roll in one bite. 

"It's really hard to explain," he said, watching the digimon's cheeks expand from all the food stuffed in it's mouth. "I'll try to tell you again later." 

There was a sound in the back. Rei was coming back.

Ryou quickly switched off the television and grabbed up his duffel bag (in which he always kept his laptop, and his blue D-Ark was clipped to the strap), holding it open so Monodramon could jump down into it. "Come _on_, Monodramon, get in." He gave the digimon a sideways glance, nodding toward the bag.

Monodramon didn't seem to be listening. "But Ryou, the TV's being weird."

Ryou stopped and gave Monodramon a look. Monodramon wasn't one to outright ignore him. "What are you talking about?"

"Look!"

Ryou's forehead creased, watching the television as numbers began to fill up the screen... But he'd turned it off just a moment ago... "Did you turn it on?" Monodramon didn't answer. What looked like a computer icon appeared on the lower left side of the glass. "Maybe it's a new show...?" 

Monodramon blinked, grinning excited at his friend. "Honto?"

Actually, he wouldn't know. He didn't watch too much TV. Ryou took a closer look, leaning forward. "Actually, it sort of looks like a computer. You see the font style and that icon?" 

"What 'font'?" Rei had just walked in carrying a box. "What are you talking about?" Her eye immediately went to Ryou's duffel bag first, and she asked, "Are you leaving so soon?"

"Er, no!" Ryou quickly moved the television, sliding it so it blocked Monodramon from view (Monodramon just kept starring at the screen). Rei, who was opening the box with a razorblade, was giving him an odd look, so he hurriedly asked, "You haven't put in a computer system, have you?" Something was beeping... His D-Ark...?

Rei shook her head, still giving him a strange look. "No..."

"It sort of looks like on...."

From where he was hidden behind the television box, Monodramon reached forward and tapped the glass. He yelped in pain as a spark flew out and shocked him. Ryou freaked, snatching his partner up as it whimpered miserably.

"Daijoubu!?"

Rei looked like she was about to scream. "N-Nani? What's happening!? Ryou!? What _is_ that thing!?"

Before Ryou could respond, the hanging lights began to flicker madly. And all at once, the lights went out, followed by a strong burst of light from the television screen. Then everything was black again...

Rei found herself standing in the dark, trembling. They were now alone in the dim green light of the television screen. 

Monodramon had fallen to the floor, looking around in confusion.

"Ryou," she whispered, horrified. "Ryou!?" Nothing. "Where are you!?" She looked desperately around the store, but he was nowhere in sight... Seeing the smoking television as the only thing that seemed to be on, she inched forward, seeing something written on the screen.

All it read was "Error Detected". 

"Transfer Complete"...

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The next thing he knew, Ken awoke, laying on dew saturated grass. He blinked a few times, making sure he could see all right. Everything was really blurry... Slowly, he put his right hand up to his face, and was relieved when it came into focus easily. But everything else was still blurred. He then realized it was because of fog. A _lot_ of fog...

"Where am I...? Minomon?"

He stood carefully, brushing himself off. It was really misty for some reason. He couldn't see more than ten feet in front on him. Ken could almost make out the contours of buildings and dotted trees. Was this the Digital World? He couldn't remember any places in the Digital World that got this foggy. And he knew almost every area and location of the place. The only time he remembered seeing fog like this was.... 

The Dark World.

His mind screamed in sudden panic, but that feeling of terror quickly dissipated when he looked down at his clothes. Relief now washed over him and he placed a hand over his pounding heart.

In the Dark World, all color is muted or faded, but the coloring of his clothes remained the same. His vibrantly colored violet shirt remind violet, and his pants the same color of blue. It was normal. "Thank the Gods," he whispered, closing his eyes for a second. When he opened them again he was only confused once more, then worried. And it was terribly cold... He cupped his hands over his mouth to call out, but another sound beat him to it. 

A low growling.

He stopped, his hands slowly lowering to his sides. "Who's there?" 

There was no response, but the growling continued. He had no idea of where it was coming from, but he was beginning to feel panic again. Ken noted that the growling was also becoming fainter, as if the source of the sound was moving away from him. _That_ was a good thing. Then...

"Ken-chan!"

Ken smiled, suppressing the urge to cheer loudly. "Minomon? Minomon!? I'm over here!" He ran in the direction that he though Minomon's voice came from, and the grass suddenly became cement. Startled, he backed up so that he was standing on the grass again.

What was concrete doing in the middle of a forest? Was this even a forest? Now that he thought of it, he didn't hear any of the noises he would usually hear, like birds, crickets, and branches rustling. And now he could smell what he thought was... sea water? 

"Where... Minomon, where are you!?"

"I can't find you, Ken-chan! I don't know where I am..."

"No, please," he pleaded to his friend as comfortingly as he could. "Please don't be scared." He searched around again, or at least as much as his visual range could allow. "I'll find you, don't worry!" He heard that growling again, and the sound slowly grew into a roar. 

"Ken-chan!!"

His heart raced. "Minomon!?" He saw the fog shifting on his left. He moved toward it without thinking. "Minomon? Are you-"

Ken was cut off when... _whatever_ it was let out a low growl, and he stopped in his tracks. 

That was _not_ Minomon...

His blood froze in his veins as the fog cleared slightly. It was just enough to reveal the huge creature. It looked somewhat like a Monochromon, but it's horn was much larger. Not only that, but this creature was red, and very demonic looking in a way. It's overall size was larger than a Monochromon's. Ken _knew_ what it was, it was on the tip of his mind, but that wasn't the most important thing to worry about at the moment. And it was now glaring right at him, eyes glowing crimson. It threw up it's head, letting out a monstrous roar.

He didn't know what to do. He tried to call to his partner, but his voice came out as a weak, "M-Minomon..."

Ken choked on a scream as the digimon charged at him, it's horn lowered as it to spear him.

No way of dodging in time. No digimon to help or protect him. No way of getting a clear thought through his terror filled mind. He couldn't even get his legs to move. Maybe the only thing that made sense to him was that he was going to die, and it wasn't even in battle. He hadn't lived his life yet. Why...?

There was nothing Ken could do but stand there...

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To be continued in Chapter Three: Complete... /Access Confirmed/

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FUN!! ^_^ It's been a while since I've written something this allot of drama! Tee hee! I can't wait to get out the next chapter. Hopefully it will be a surprise! It's really fun to write! I'll have the proofing finished soon, I hope!

When rewriting this, I was very happy about writing Daisuke POV in there. I mean,. it will make a lot more since later in the story now. Just trust me!

Well, bye for now!! 

REVIEW PWEEEEASE!!? -^___^- ARIGATOU!!!

Geuna~


	4. Complete... /Access Confirmed/ (Part One...

Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to me. All characters and items within are all based around both the television show and the card game. None of these belong to me. (though I wish they did, like probably everyone else...)

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A Meeting Of Tamers

By Lady Geuna

Rated: PG

Summary: There is the Dark World, Dream World, Digital World, Real World, and the Tamer World. But what if Takato of the Tamer World discovers a key that could force all the worlds into one? The balance of the very worlds will shift like no one would've ever expected. 

Another Universe, but mostly canon. Takes place some time before they meet Ryou and the Devas, and before their digimon are able to digivolve to Ultimate.

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"..." speech

'....' thoughts 

/.../ around a SENTENCE will mean a flashback or memory.

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I've separated this chapter into two parts because it's really long. And it's a lot easier to post it faster.

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Translations other than the ones here can be seen in Chapter Two: Transferring... /Data Downloading/, k?

Sugoi- Cool! Rockin'! A sort of exclamation that expresses excitement or that something really great.

Yosh- similar to "sugoi", it's an exclamation that's more like "YES" or something.

Ototochan- Little brother

Nii-san/Nii-chan/Nii-sama- Little brother

doko?-where?

__

name doko desu ka?- where is _name_!?

doko desu ka- where are you!?

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Chapter Three: Complete... /Access Confirmed/ (Part One)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"_Look_ _out_!"

The next thing Ken knew, a relatively large, orange shape dodged out of the fog from his left. Tackled onto his side _hard_, he got the breath knocked out of his lungs twice; from the impact with the thing (whatever it was), and then again with the hard ground. 

The Monochromon lookalike disappeared back into the misty whiteness, not bothering to look back at him, or to even turn around again. Once it was gone, there was the sound of something crashing, stone cracking, metal twisting, and a loud roar before everything went silent again.

Ken was thankful for his good fortune, now trying to get his breath back. But trying to breath correctly only resulted in coughing. He body balled up slightly as a reflex against the chill in the air, a hand to his mouth as he coughed. His lungs ached, and he began gasping, needing more air. But after a moment his breath began coming out even again, he relaxed. His back ached considerably, but other than that, he was just fine.

Who...?

"Hey, are you okay?"

With effort, Ken rolled over onto his stomach and starred unblinkingly at the person who had saved him. A boy. He had brown spiky hair, with a few strands falling into his face. His blue eyes were wide and full of worry as he studied the person he'd saved from getting trampled. He wore an long sleeved orange sweater shirt and torn jeans. He looked more repaired for this sort of weather than Ken was.

Of course, it wasn't unusual to see another person in a situation like this. These days, such events become common place in a world where digimon exist with partners. Every human in the Real World knew about them, anyway. 

That is, _if_ they were in the Real World. 

His mind immediately went back to the digimon that attacked him, and he searched the fog for it. He couldn't see it anymore, the fog was too dense, and he couldn't hear anything that sounded out of place.

"Hey, _are_ _you_ _okay_," the boy repeated, more sharply this time. 

Realizing he was in a daze, Ken snapped out of it, focusing all of his attention on the boy, who was noticeably older than him. The only thing he could think of to say was. "What's happening?" Maybe this guy had some answers? This boy might be in the same situation as him. 

"I don't know," he boy admitted, frowning. He propped himself onto his elbows, wincing. "I... One minute I'm watching TV... and the next..." He made gestures with his hands instead of finishing the sentence, as if his body language would finish the rest of his story. Of course, he didn't seem to be doing more than flailing his arms about.

He wasn't sure how, but Ken understood. The exact same thing happened to this boy that had happened to him. Ken was very uncertain about all this. 

"Well, I think that digimon's lost in the fog again." The boy sat up all they way. He checked himself over quickly to see if he still had all him limbs before looking around. "How did _you_ get here?"

"My computer." He rubbed his aching chest, then began to cough forcefully again. Geez, he felt like he was hit with a battering-ram.

The other guy watched him nervously. His expression very calculating. "Sorry for hitting you so hard. I was just trying to get you out of the way..." He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose and glancing up. "Gomen ne."

Ken smiled, waving him off. He took a few deep breaths and he was okay again. "Iie, don't worry. I've been through worse, anyway..." The boy gave him an odd look at this, and Ken added quickly, "I mean _thanks_...! For saving my life, Mr. ... um...."

"Ryou." He smiled, and held out a hand for a formal greeting. Ken didn't react quickly enough it seemed, because Ryou reached over, snatched up his hand, bowing his head slightly. "Akiyama Ryou. Nice to meet you." He let go of Ken's hand and looking around at the scenery lazily. "Although, I would have picked a nicer meeting place... It might be smart to leave before..." He didn't notice Ken's violet eyes widened in shock, his jaw dropping open slightly.

"_Ryou_!?" 

The exclamation made the older boy jump, catching him off guard. Ryou looked at him oddly, appearing suddenly uncomfortable for some reason. "Yeah...? What?"

Ken just kept starring, dumb struck. 

"R-Ryou..."

The person in his dreams! 

//*_Flashback_*//

__

/Ken sobbed, nursing a bruised knee. He didn't know what happened. This desert was so huge, and he didn't know where to go. Despite what Wormmon told him about the Digital World and his digivice, Ken was still frightened of this alien world, not too sure as to where **it** was. All he knew that that it looked very threatening as he gazed on into the sandstorm. 

Sand whipping around violently in the wind, slapping him in the face. Some got in his eyes, making them sting as he tried desperately to rub it out.

He should've listened to Osamu...

"Hey!"

His gaze shot up, meeting smiling blue eyes. "Daijoubu," the boy asked. "Didn't think I'd see anyone else in these place. Well, at least another human_... There aren't many around this parts, or so I've heard..." _

Ken hadn't seen the boy before in his life. He was at least two years older him, with spiked brown hair, and the strangest clothes. White gloves and a short sleeved button-up blue shirt. His baggy, dark brown pants were tucked into his boots.

The other boy bent down, visually examining Ken's knee. "Looks like you've hurt yourself..." 

Ken remained totally silent, moving a little bit away from the strange boy. His mother and father told him to never talk to strangers. Osamu had said that, too, many_ times. He told Ken that bad things can happen, _terrible_ things... Though... this boy didn't seem bad..._

The boy picked up on this reaction almost immediately, holding his hands up as if in defense of himself. "Oi! Daijoubu, daijoubu. I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just going to check to see how bad that knee of yours is. But it's really smart you to be cautious." His eyes were very comforting. Then he caught sight of Wormmon, who was blinking up cautiously at the new human. He paused a moment, them smiled. "Hello..."

"Hello," Wormmon replied sheepishly, wearing a nervous expression that was uncannily familiar to Ken's.

"You're a digimon, too, aren't you?" He gestured behind him. "This is my friend, Veemon."

Ken starred in surprise as a small blue dragon stepped out from behind the boy. It grinned, giving him the victory sign. "Hi ya'!" Veemon's attitude seemed very different from the boy's, unlike Ken and Wormmon. The boy seemed a lot more... serious... Veemon instantly spotted Wormmon, grinned, and walked right out without a moments thought. "Hi. I'm Veemon! Nice to meet you." He held out a paw, still grinning. 

Wormmon reluctantly shook it with his pod, but his eyes sparkled with happiness and wonder. "Ken-chan, he's another human, isn't he?"

Ken nodded slowly. "Hai..." 

"You really don't get many human travelers around here, do you," the boy said quietly to his Veemon, who nodded once in reply, then he turned back to Ken with a very serious expression on his face. "It's really dangerous out here. Your name's Ken, ne?" Ken nodded. "Well Ken, do you want some help?" He grinned warmly, as if trying to show that he was friendly, as any adult would to calm a small child. It was working rather well, too. To Ken, the boy seemed like less of a stranger...

The younger boy spotted an object in the boys gloved hand, and his eyes lit up. "You have a thingy, too!!"

The boy blinked, looking at his device. "Oh, my digivice? You have one, too, don't you?"

Wormmon had told him all about his digivice, and how people called digidestined are supposed to have them, to protect the Digital World. So that meant this other boy was like him! 

Ken happily jumped up, holding up his small hand, fingers spread out. His Okaa-san had always told him that shaking hands was the proper form of greeting for younger people like himself, and this boy seemed only a few years older than him. "I'm Ichijouji Ken! Are you another friend?" He glanced down at Wormmon, who was chatting excitedly with Veemon. "Wormmon's my best friend!"

Gripping his hand firmly, the other boy nodded, smiling as well. "Ryou. Akiyama Ryou. It's nice to meet you, Ken."/

//*_End_ _Flashback_*//

Images flashed in and out his mind. Memories. His first trip to the Digital World. The Desert. His first look at a digimon. The person he remembered seeing other than himself in the Digital World. The one he remembered being with when he found Wormmon for the first time. Chibimon. 

Ryou-san.

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Yamaki stomped about the room, cursing every few seconds. "Where _are_ they!? They couldn't 've disappeared, _find_ them!!"

"Sir! I'm sorry I have to keep telling you this, but we _can't_! They're gone!"

"Sir, there's something happening in the bay area. Reports are coming in that massive tremors are disturbing the computer systems. They've evacuated. An earthquake is suspected." 

"Earthquake," he spat. "Fools. They must be tearing the area apart." 

"They are." Megumi brought up a picture of the bay waterway. Chunks of cement fell from their foundations. "No one has noticed them as of yet, surprisingly. The city's far too absorbed in this black out fiasco."

"They're tearing the place apart sir. But the four _other_ anomalies aren't doing anything. Two of them seem... different. Not like anything else we've seen before."

"They don't seem to have an energy signature like the others. They _have_ on, it's there, but still, not the same."

This was either a very bad thing, or.... well, it could only be a bad thing at this point.

"I think I've finally figured out why the signals seemed so strange, sir. They didn't come from... where the other signals came from..."

Yamaki's eyes narrowed, trying to comprehend what the woman was saying. "What... do you mean?"

"I mean, sir, that these four. The two with the off energy signatures and the smaller two. They _didn't_ come from a digital main frame. They came from somewhere totally different from the digital plane."

"There's no logical explanation, sir. It's impossible..."

"They came from somewhere, they _had_ to. Just not from here, or the Digital Plane" 

Yamaki didn't like this. 'But that can't happen,' he thought, 'these anomalies couldn't've come from another location. This "Digital World" should be the only place they can exist. And now two new creatures emerge?'

"Dammit..."

"Sir, we can try another tracer lock.... but what good it would do is beyond me..."

Yamaki had enough. "I want to get down there, _now_." He opened his cell phone and pressed speed dial #2. When he heard someone pick-up on the other line, he said, "I need to get to the eastern bay area. I need transportation. _Immediately_." 

The man on the other line seemed nervous. "B-But sir..."

He didn't want any of that, so he continued. "I'll need two men to occupancy me..." No answer. He scowled. "Can you do this one simple little thing...?"

"We don't have access to a helicopter as of yet, sir," the man finally spoke. "There's a risk of another power failure, and they haven't finished checking the systems for damage, viruses, or failure..."

"Then get a car, moron," he said lowly. "Use your brain sometime!" Did he _say_ he needed a bloody helicopter? _No_. Idiots, all of them... "Tell my men to meet me in the parking garage in two minutes."

He slapped the cell shut before the man could answer and headed straight for the door. Throwing one last glance behind him, he said loudly, "Reike, I leave this to you." Then he was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ryou-san...?" Ken moved closer and starred into the other boys face, thinking hard, trying to match up the face in his dream to the face before him now. "Is it really you?" Why did Ken remember now...? He had forgotten until now.

Ryou looked troubled, glancing around as if worried he would attract the attention of a none existent crowd. "Do I know you?" 

Oh, that _hurt_.

Ken grabbed hold of Ryou's shoulders and looked straight into his eyes. "Ryou-san, it's me! Don't you remember?" Ken felt suddenly sick to his stomach. 

His best friend. 

His first _real_ friend. 

Had Ryou forgotten him after all this time? The thought at it made his heart physically ache, but he couldn't understand why.

Ryou squinted, then his jaw dropped even lower than Ken's had. "Ken? Ken is it really _you_!?" 

All at once, Ken felt the pain lift. Ryou _remembered_!

Laughing joyously, Ryou grabbed the younger boy into a bear hug, wrapping his arms around Ken's shoulders. "Sugoi! I can't believe it's really you! .... You've... really _grown_." 

"Y-You too..." Ryou, he now noticed, as much taller than him still. But Ryou didn't look a day older than he remembered... Why was that? But then again, he never really knew how old Ryou was in the first place. "But you don't look that much older..."

He nodded. "Well, it hasn't been that long, has it?" Ryou was still smiling, his eyes shinning, and unexpectedly he leaned in and hugged him...

Ken was a bit fluster by the display of affection. He wasn't used to it coming from anyone but his parents. But then again, back when he was with Ryou, Ken thought of him as a brother. Not a brother like Osamu, but more in a sense of.... that Ryou.... That Ryou was the brother Ken _wished_ he had. He was there to take care of him when he was small and lost, when Wormmon and he had no idea of what to do. Inexperienced and wandering around lost in a desert, in the _Digital_ _World_, wasn't a very comforting experience when you were only a little kid. 

Collecting his nerve, Ken hugged his friend back, smiling. "It's great to see you, Ryou-kun." There was something else he was trying to remember, but he couldn't remember what it was...

After a moment, they two of them let go of each other and just sat. 

There was a pause, and then Ryou sighed. "I'm really sorry about this, but we need to find out what's happened."

Ken blushed, shaking his head and adverting his eyes to the grass around them. "Gomen. I-I have no idea. I think we're in the Digital World. We _have_ to be, right? Where else is there?"

Ryou looked like he was about to say something when they heard,

"Ken-chaaaan!"

Ken shot to his feet, recognizing the voice that had called to him. "Minomon!?"

Ryou looked up at him, wide eyed. "He's here?" He scrambled to his feet as well, his face becoming very serious. "That means Monodramon should be here, too!"

"... Monodramon..?" Didn't he have a Veemon...?

Ryou nodded, clinching his hands into fists. "I was holding him when I was brought here. But I didn't see him when I showed up here..." He squeezed his eyes shut, as if mentally kicking himself for loosing track of his friend. "I almost hope he is... He shouldn't be left alone... He doesn't know anything about other humans, and if they see him..."

Ken couldn't help but become very, very confused. Why would people be afraid on a digimon? What _sort_ or digimon was this Monodramon? "We have to find them, then, or we could be in big trouble..." 

Ryou agreed. "Okay, Ken, let's..." He glanced around. "Do you have any idea of where we're going? I'm not familiar with this place..."

"I know this is a bay or something..."

"A _bay_?" He nodded, looking around at the grass and thick fog. 

"I could smell the sea water," he said, as if it was an obvious answer (good old genius Ken!). Ken shrugged, trying to eye the silhouettes of the tree he thought he seen a few minutes ago. "And I think there's some cement pavement or something close by."

"It might be a Digital Field."

Ken blinked. "A what?"

"I... A lot have things have happened since I had to leave you, Ken..."

Ken didn't question that, and instead asked, "You have your D-3, right?"

"What? Oh, yes. I think I have it..." He fished around in his pocket, looking for it. When Ryou didn't find his digivice, he frowned deeply. "It must still... I had it clicked on my bag." He looked at Ken, shaking his head. "Sorry, I had a duffel bag when I was sucked in. I had it clipped to the strap." 

Ken groaned, putting his face in his hands. 'Great, just _great_.'

"Bad luck, I guess." He narrowed his eyes and began looking over the grass, or at least as much of it as he could make out in the fog. "I bet it's around here somewhere..."

Ken shook his head. "There's not much of a chance that you'll find it now, it's pro-..." He stopped, looking around. "Hey, I think the fog's clearing!"

He blinked. "What?" Ryou looked cautiously at his surroundings, when his face hardened. "This isn't a good thing, Ken," he warned, and Ken vaguely wondered what he meant.

And sure enough, it was clearing. Ken and Ryou stopped as the fog around them slowly dissipated. Ken couldn't explain it, but it was just suddenly _gone_. A few scattered but large trees were revealed , as well as a large section of concrete pavement. After a few yards, the cement stopped were there was railing. There wasn't much else to see because it was still very dark. The "Monochromon" was nowhere in sight. But knowing digimon, they had a habit of hiding in places that you'd never suspect. The creature could be _anywhere_. 

"Wow!" Startled, Ken turned to Ryou, who was starring past the trees and upward. "Where _are_ we?"

Confused, Ken followed his line on sight, moving to stand next to him. "Nani...? Oh!" He stopped high-rise building in the distance. Actually, it look familiar. Almost like.... "I think we're in Shinjuku!"

"Masaka! _Shinjuku_? As in _Tokyo_? I was in Hokkaido a second ago.." He sighed. "My dad's not going to like this... How am I supposed to travel all the way back home in time to keep Monodramon out of trouble...?"

Ken paused. "Well... I'll give you a tour once we're done here!" Ryou shot him a look of pure skepticism. ".... _If_ we got done here... We have to find Minomon and Monodramon."

Ryou nodded, tearing his eyes from the buildings. "You're right..." 

There it was, the old serious Ryou he'd always known. The serious Ryou he still was.

Ken considered what he was going to do now. If he called out, he might attract the attention of that other digimon... On the other hand, if he _didn't_ call out, Minomon might not know to call again himself, and they'd have absolutely no idea of where he was.

But all in all, he decided to throw caution to the wind. "Minomon," he yelled. "Where are yoooou?!"

"_Ken-chan_!!"

Ken turned just in time to see a small green blur coming at him, barreling across the grass and glomping onto his head. "Ken-chan," he cried happily, snuggling into Ken's hair, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Ken found it hard to speak with the insect clamped onto his face, and equally hard to breath, but he managed. "Wormmon, you _digivolved_?" He carefully yanked his (at the moment) overly loving digimon off him and smiled, looking into his friends mirthful blue eyes. "Must've been the rice balls, huh?" 

The green digimon sighed happily, snuggling into Ken's chest. "Can I have some more, later?"

He laughed. "Of course you can!" Hugging him gently, he whispered, "I'm glad you're okay..." Noticing Ryou as he stood quietly watching the two, looking left out, Ken laughed. He held Wormmon toward Ryou, smiling widely. "Wormmon, look who I found!"

Wormmon blinked in shock. "Ryou?"

Ryou smiled. "Hi, Wormmon. Haven't seen ya in while since you took Ken to... get better..." He trailed off.

Ryou clearly remembered Ken's accident while the younger boy was protecting him from those flying black things.

Wormmon didn't look at all distressed, however, and Ken was oblivious. He wondered vaguely why Wormmon didn't need the reminding Ken did. He'd recognized Ryou right away without missing a beat. 

The caterpillar digimon began clapping his two front pods together in excitement. "Is Veemon here!?"

Ryou smiled weakly, with a hint of sadness. "Monodramon is here somewhere... Veemon left to find his real partner..."

Ken wondered what Ryou meant by this, but another thought came to him that definitely seemed more important. "Hey," Ken said quickly, "did anyone see where that big red digimon went?"

Silence.

I say we look for Monodramon as long as we're out of harms way," Ryou said.

Ken thought for a moment, placing Wormmon on the ground. "What should we do? Call for him? What if that digimon comes back? Or hears us?"

"And he can definitely _see_ us now." He paused. "We need to stay cautious-"

Wormmon interrupted him, yanking at Ken's pant leg, getting the younger boys attention. "Ken-chan, do you hear that?" He pointed a pod at Ken's D-3.

Ken hadn't noticed because he was preoccupied, but his D-3 _had_ begun beeping. Ken half feared that something bad was going to happen. The _last_ time the thing had started to beep like that, Ken got sucked into his computer... Now that he thought of it, the device must've been acting up while everything else went haywire, but it was overlooked in the chaos. And now he had been taken... somewhere that he wasn't sure of! What if this wasn't really Shinjuku and just some digital illusion? They _were_ common.

Ryou looked curiously it his beeping device.

"Hey, what's it say?"

Pressing a few buttons, Ken examined the screen, eyes widening before he smiled. "Yosh!"

A look of total confusion struck Ryou face as he desperately tried to see what was on the tiny screen by looking over Ken's shoulder. But all he saw was some blinking dots and arrows. "What?"

Ken smiled up at his friend. "My D-3's picked up another digivice signal. It _must_ be yours!"

"Honto ne?" He tried grabbed for the device to get a better look, but Ken was already moving in the direction the screen indicated, Wormmon in tow. "Oi! Ken, _wait_." He jogged after the indigo haired boy as he stalked determinedly toward the cement walkway. But no matter how much noise Ryou made, he couldn't tear Ken's attention away from his D-3. "Ken, where is the signal pointing?" No answer. "Are you listening?" Let again, no answer. "Hey, Wormmon's doing cartwheel and singing toons, do you see it?"

__

This got Ken's attention and he glanced down at Wormmon. "Eh?" Wormmon just blinked up at him, baffled. Ken then gave Ryou a dirty look. "Hey!" 

Ryou just shrugged, crossing his arms and looking skyward innocently. "It's your fault for not paying attention to me."

Ken sighed loudly and looked at his D-3 again. They had reached the railing that overlooked the water. "The signal's coming from right over here..." He walked up to the railing and stopped as his D-3 let out two quick beeps, and then remained silent. "That's odd..." 

Ryou looked around, his eyes narrowed. "What?" 

His eyebrow knotted as he looked around. "The signal stops here, look." He held up his screen. Four arrows were directed toward the center of the screen, pointing at a single orange dot. The arrows blinked continuously, indicating the exact location.

Ryou didn't know what to make of it, frowning. "I don't see anything..."

"Ryou!!"

Ryou's eyes snapped open as wide as they could and he gasped. "Chibimon...? _Chibimon_? How can he be here?!" He looked around, confused. "Where are you," he called back. "Chibimon!"

Ken carefully leaned over the railing, gulping reflexively. It was a good forty foot drop into the sea. They really _were_ at a bay or something. A ladder went down along the concrete, reaching a ledge halfway down. He wasn't sure how wide the ledge was, but it looked pretty narrow. His eyes wondered and he caught a shape a few feet from the ladder. "Ryou! Look!" He pointed into the darkness at a pale shape hanging from the ledge to their left.

Ryou flung himself at the railing, bending over dangerously far. "Chibimon!!?"

Sure enough, it was Chibimon. The poor little dragon digimon was hanging for his dear life by one paw, and in the other it clung to the strap of what was most likely Ryou's duffel bag.

"How'd you get down there!? Why-" He saw his digimon slipping and panicked. "Chibimon!" 

Chibimon looked up at him, his red eyes widening. "Ryou!?"

"Yes, it's me, Chibimon. You need to drop the bag!"

Chibimon whimpered, but didn't let go. His little body was under a lot of strain, but determination won out. "I can't!"

Ken gripped Ryou's sleeve. "Ryou-san, you said your D-3 was in there..."

"Or course," he whispered. Chibimon must've seen it... "He knows." He couldn't loose his digivice... If he did... 

Ryou clinched his fists and moved to climb over the railing. "I'm coming for you!"

"Matte yo!" Grabbing onto the back of Ryou's shirt, he yanked the teen back to solid ground. "Are you insane!? That's too dangerous! Why don't you let Wormmon climb down and try?"

Ryou seemed to rethink this, looking down at Wormmon with a very dark look. Ken didn't remember Ryou being this way... "I don't think he can pull Chibimon's weigh, he'll fall, too!" 

Ken was about to make an argument when a angry roar ripped through the air, making them both stop dead. Ken recognized it at once, and he felt his heart leap into his mouth. A moment later, a booming sound could be heard. The ground beneath them shook, giving evidence that it had to be something really heavy that had hit the ground. Both of them stumbled and fell to their knees, but they still didn't see anything. The noise seemed to be coming from everywhere. 

Ryou tensed, looking around carefully, "Where's it come from!?"

At that moment something huge came barreling out of the darkness, straight at them.

On reflex, Ryou hit the dirt, while Ken bent over, covering his head with his arms. 

Whatever it was went sailing right over their heads and crashed into the cement ground all but a few yards from where they knelt. Bits of cement flew about them, and they all looked down, worried that they'd get hit in the eye. Wormmon, who clung onto Ken's pant leg, gasped in shock.

"It's Vermillimon!"

Ken blinked, cautiously looking up. "Nani...?" He felt a lump form in his throat as he recognized the digimon from before. "Vermillimon?"

"Hai! Vermillimon! His crimson horn has overwhelming destructive power! His an Ultimate level digimon, the evolved form of Monochromon. Monochromon may have been stupid, but his evolved form is much smarter!"

Ryou frowned at the digimon, still on the ground. "I doesn't look very smart _or_ nice to me..."

The Vermillimon, though it looked like it had a less than comfortable landing, seemed just fine. It had landed on it's back, it's gargantuan horn pierced into the ground. But after a few twists and grunts of effort, it was on it's feet again, tearing it's horn from the cement easily. The first thing it did when it saw them was glare sidelong in a less than kindly manner.

It was odd. The digimon didn't look like it could have climbed up here. And from the _sea_ no less. A fire type? _Swimming_? No way!

Ryou seemed to be thinking the same thing Ken was. 

"How did it get up here," Ryou called out to it. "You doesn't look like much of a jumper to me." Vermillimon turned completely to face them, it's long crimson horn pointed in the direction. "Uh oh..."

Wormmon looked worried, tugging at his partners pant leg. "Ken-chan, I don't think it wants to hurt us. It's looking for something."

The older boy frowned. "Maybe..." He called again, "We just want to talk!" Vermillimon didn't respond, and Ryou muttered to Wormmon, "I don't think he'll listen. Whether he wants to fight or not, I think we need a plan..."

"We should try talking to it again," Ken suggested.

"Vermillimon don't like conversations," Wormmon said simply, but quietly just in case the other digimon heard him and got insulted. "They just like to fight and make noise. Just because he's more intelligent than Monochromon doesn't mean he has anything more interesting to say."

"Then I say it just jump right back..." Ken sighed, shaking his head seriously. "This may get complicated..."

That's when it hit Ken.

"No," Ken mumbled, backing away. 

Ryou looked at him. "'No'?"

"I don't think it jumped." He gasped, looking scared. "He was _thrown_!"

Ryou didn't like this idea. Now another important question popped into his head. "By _what_?" 

As if to answer his question directly, the creature in question rose up into view just beyond the railing overlooking the waters, towering over them. It opened it's mouth, revealing rows of glistening sharp teeth. It made a noise that was a mix between a growl and a hiss. 

"Oh crap." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued in Chapter Three: Complete... /Access Confirmed/ (Part Two)...

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A/N: PLEASE REVIEW!!! -^__^-

Geuna~

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	5. Complete... /Access Confirmed/ (Part Two...

Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to me. All characters and items within are all based around both the television show and the card game. None of these belong to me. (though I wish they did, like probably everyone else...)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Meeting Of Tamers

By Lady Geuna

Rated: PG

Summary: There is the Dark World, Dream World, Digital World, Real World, and the Tamer World. But what if Takato of the Tamer World discovers a key that could force all the worlds into one? The balance of the very worlds will shift like no one would've ever expected. 

Another Universe, but mostly canon. Takes place some time before they meet Ryou and the Devas, and before their digimon are able to digivolve to Ultimate.

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"..." speech

'....' thoughts 

/.../ around a SENTENCE will mean a flashback or memory.

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Translations other than the ones here can be seen in Chapter Two: Transferring... /Data Downloading/, k?

Sugoi- Cool! Rockin'! A sort of exclamation that expresses excitement or that something really great.

Shimatta- basically means "damn it"

Hai!- Means "yes", but can also means something close to "Right!"

Arigatou- thank you

Masaka- "it can't be"

Onegi- "please", as in when you beg

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Chapter Three: Complete... /Access Confirmed/ (Part Two)

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It opened it's mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth. It made a noise that was a mix between a growl and a hiss. 

"Oh crap," Ryou stated, monotone. 

"Seadramon, Wormmon whispered, shivering with fear. "This champion level digimon won't let go of his enemy until it's dead! The special attack which he sends out from his long body has a temperature of absolute zero! 

Ryou stood, looking very tense, watching the digimon carefully. And Ryou looked _very_ displeased when Ken stepped forward as if to face off with the creature. "What are you doing, Ken?" When Ken didn't respond, he made a grab for Ken's arm, but he dodged away. "Ken, he's not going to listen! Don't be stupid!"

"Why are you fighting with this digimon," he demanded, starring into the creatures blue eyes. "Stop it now! You have no reason to fight like this!" Seadramon hissed at him, as did Vermillimon growl at him warningly. "Oh no..."

Ryou glanced back and forth between Vermillimon and the other digimon, mumbling to himself, "Figures, fire vs. ice... They're competing."

"It's common for digimon to fight," Wormmon said. "But not like this!" He moved a little closer to Seadramon, starring at him with pleading eyes. "You can't battle for who's the strongest! It's not worth it if one of you gets destroyed!"

"He's right," Ken yelled, turning toward Vermillimon. "You can't be reconfigured here! Your data will be lost!" When it didn't seem like either digimon were listening, Ken sighed in defeat. "I don't think pleading to them is going to work..." Vermillimon let out a grunt of displeasure, glaring straight at Ken now. This was the first time it had ever taken it's eyes off the Seadramon. "A-And I don't think it likes me much right now..."

Ryou as becoming agitated. "Ken, you have to _listen_ to me. They're playing for data here, you can't talk them out of it! It's what they live for!"

Ken had no idea what Ryou was talking about. 'Playing for data'? What did _that_ mean? Digimon didn't live to fight and destroy each other! They _didn't_! "Ryou-san-"

"It's not your call here, Ken, it's theirs..." Ryou had backed up as much as he thought possible without making too much movement. He was afraid any sudden movement would send it upon them, though Ken didn't care about the danger at all. All he cared about was stopped the two from fighting.

He had to, _somehow_.

Seadramon hissed, now focusing it's attention totally on Vermillimon. Vermillimon once again did the same, and all at once the three bystanders standing between them realized that they were in big trouble. "W-Wormmon...? Oh Gods..."

Ken's D-3 went crazy...

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Moments before, not too far away....

Renamon starred out at the three unknown strangers. There was another one nearby, too, but out of view. Or at least according to her D-Ark.

"Ah man, I can't _believe_ those two didn't see that thing coming. They _have_ D-Arks, I can see them from here!"

Vermillimon crashed to the ground. The two boys looked startled, terrified, unable to react. If they didn't collect themselves soon, they would most certainly be killed. Vermillimon weren't very pleasant in battle.

"Where's Takato, anyway? He's usually here by now when something's going on... And Lee..." 

Another beast came from the waters, a Seadramon.

Pause...

There was something about that boy... Frightened violet eyes... Violet... Like Ruki's, almost...

"Renamon."

He was small, with dark hair... That digimon of his... Something about it...

"Renamon...?"

The Seadramon and Vermillimon were easy to identify. The other two... they were legendary digimon as far as she could tell. A Wormmon and a.... Chibimon? Yes, she recognized its scent. It was somewhere close. Yes, very rare. The last time she'd seen the Digital World, though, their number had multiplied considerably. 

"Renamon... Are you _listening_?"

Renamon blinked, bowing her head in apology. "Gomen, Ruki." She looked down at her partner, who seemed more than a little frustrated. The two of them stood upon a low building nearby, watching the potential battle. "What is it?"

Ruki didn't seem too pleased with the question. "What do you mean, "What is it"? Isn't that obvious!? _Why_ aren't you fighting those digimon? Helping those guys out?" She pointed down at the scene, her eyes flashing toward her D-Ark, where she looked over both creatures' data for the third time now. "Those two look like perfectly strong opponents, and if that little guy try's fighting them on his own.... They'll all be _killed_." She paused, as if uncertain about mentioning the subject if death. Then finally, Ruki growled, shaking her head. "There's no question about it! You have to fight."

"This isn't our fight," Renamon stated simply, ignoring the low grunt of frustration that came from Ruki as she folded her arms tightly. "I can sense it.... I can't deny my own instincts, Ruki."

Ruki still didn't look pleased, but she trusted her partner, a small, worried smile twitching at the edge or her lips. "I hope you're right." She observed the two boys and the digimon. "I've seen them somewhere.... I can't remember where... And that digimon looks totally hopeless." She indicated toward the green insect type digimon with distaste, calling up its data on her D-Ark. "A Wormmon, and a very weak card, too. A virus, but it can't even go into a Dark Area."

"Looks can be deceiving, Ruki."

Ruki sighed, tapping the bridge of her nose. "Whatever..." Ruki smirked, looking up into her partners eyes. Renamon saw something in them.... Something that she loved seeing, that made her heart warm. "But if they can't handle it, I'm sure you'll lend them a hand, right?"

Renamon nodded, offering a small smile, showing her thanks. 'Ruki, we were meant for this... My partner.' 

By now Ruki had turned away, looking down at the confrontation below. Things seemed to have taken an ugly turn. Vermillion and Seadramon were poised to attack, the two boys trapped between them, and the Wormmon had made no move to stop any of it.

She couldn't explain it. She'd felt this way before, a few times, actually. Renamon just had this feeling, that this wasn't _her_ fight. The two digimon below (wherever the second one was) and their partners seemed hopeless at the moment, but still...

Suddenly, her ears shot up into the air, her crystal blue eyes widening. She felt something... Something _powerful_!

New data spilled into Ruki's D-Ark, and Renamon hardly noticed her partners whispered words.

"Wow..."

Just then, the smaller boy's device went mad. It let out a very discomforting, _shrill_, mechanical sound. 

At the same moment, Vermillimon and Seadramon attacked in unison.

"Volcano Strike!"

"Ice Arrow!"

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"Wormmon, shinka.... _Stingmon_!"

He bent down, giving Ken only a moment to jump onto his back, and before Ryou knew what was happening, Stingmon's metal talons had him pinned to his hard green armored chest. As both attacks fired from Vermillimon and Seadramon, Stingmon had extended his wings and shot straight into the air like a bullet.

"Ice Arrow" and "Volcano Strike" collided below, sending up a cloud of steam that threatened to engulf them as well as a physically evident shock-wave that threw Stingmon off balance. He spun around, unable to control where he was going.

Both boys became panicked by the sudden chaos, but the champion digimon managed to gain control of himself in seconds, forcing himself into an upright position.

"Gomen, Ken," Stingmon said apologetically.

Ken managed to get a hold of himself, pressing a hand to his forehead as if trying to force away a dizzy spell. But more than anything, he felt nauseous, and as if his stomach were in his mouth. "D-Daijoubu..." He adjusted his grip on Stingmon's neck, fearing that he would slip off. There was no _way_ he wanted to die like that. "You okay, Ryou-san?" He looked down at the cloud of steam, which had spread to become as thick as the fog that had been present earlier, and, unfortunately, it thoroughly hide their enemies from sight. "Thanks for the save, Stingmon."

"Yeah," his older friend agreed, looking just as sick as Ken, "thanks..."

"Good..." Ken couldn't help but smile thankfully, but then reality came rushing at him. He cried out as Seadramon's tail flew at them. Stingmon dodged, but just barely. "We can't stay up here! We've got to get them to stop fighting!"

Ryou began twisting roughly in Stingmon's grip, trying to get loose. "Chibimon! He's still down there!" He looked up at Stingmon. "You've _got_ to get me down there!"

"And what are you going to do," Ken demanded. "You'll get yourself killed!"

"Chibimon's going to be died soon if I don't." With much effort, Ryou managed to climb into Stingmon's arm, sitting on it carefully. He appeared very pale but determined. It somehow reminded him of Daisuke having one her his more serious moments... "Just give me one good pass at him! Trust me!"

Stingmon glanced backwards at Ken, worried. But his partner nodded solemnly. 

"Do it, Stingmon."

"Hai!"

In moments the steam cleared, revealing Vermillimon and Seadramon as they continued to battle. Seadramon was trying to coil itself about Vermillimon, snapping at its neck with his powerful jaws. Vermillimon counted these attacks with his horn, its red eyes blazing with fury.

Stingmon then made his move.

It was like going down the tallest lip of a roller coaster. Air whistled past their ears as they dived downward, seemingly straight for the ground. Ken could make out a crater from the first attacks, and a few others. It had turned into a war zone full of rubble and smoking craters...

Seadramon saw them coming, it's eyes glowing with rage for their intrusion. It took that moment to turn from its opponent, pointing it's yellow armored head toward them, screaming, "Ice Arrow!"

Both boys cried out in alarm as extreme cold hit them like a bucket of ice water in the middle of winter. Frost, Ken could see, had formed on Stingmon's armor. This only gave proof that though they had dodged the attack, it had been only a near miss. 

As they neared the ground, Stingmon had nowhere to go, stopping momentarily to hover above the walkway. Seeing this opportunity, Ryou jumped from Stingmon's arms, carefully rolling as he hit the ground, half knocking the breath out of himself in the process. He yelped when he forced his elbow to hit the cement, stopping his motion.

Ken cried out to him. "Ryou-san, what are you doing!?" He couldn't possibly be able to dodge attacks on his own! He was going to kill himself!

Ryou shot to his feet. "I'm going for Chibimon! Distract them!"

Ken couldn't respond before Stingmon had to make another sharp turn, nearly sending him flying. But Ken managed to keep his hold, his legs swinging through the air.

But for Ryou, he'd hang on. As long as he had a chance. As long as Ryou was _safe_.

'Hurry, Ryou-san.'

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Below, Ryou searched frantically for the metal latter they'd seen earlier. "Hang on, Chibimon, I'm coming for you!" He finally spotted it, gasping with relief. But he froze when he heard Ken screaming after him.

"Look out!!!!"

Ryou glanced back in time to see that Seadramon had spotted him, turning on him- 

"Ice Arrow!"

Just as Seadramon was about to release it's attack, Ken did something both very brave and very stupid. At the time, Stingmon had been very close to Seadramon's head. Taking the chance, Ken let go and leaped from Stingmon's shoulder, right onto the creatures back. Though Ken was very small, when he hit Seadramon, he threw the sea creatures aim off just enough to barely miss Ryou as the older boy dived head first over the railing.

Ryou's hands came in contact with the ladder on the way down, and he reflexively took hold. It nearly popped his arms out of their sockets, his body swinging down and connecting hard with the stone. He grimaced at the pain, but at least he was still alive. After gaining his footing and managing to climb up the latter, looking over the ledge at Ken, shocked. 

He watched his friend at the Seadramon flung its head around madly, trying to dislodge the boy. Seadramon wasn't at all pleased that it was carrying a passenger. Stingmon was now busy with Vermillimon, with Stingmon trying to wrestle the beast down by it's horn.

Stingmon shot toward Vermillimon, not wanting to hurt it too badly. He attempted to use his attacks at lowest strength, trying not to hurt the other digimon too badly. "Hell Squeeze!"

Unexpectedly, Stingmon's opponent let out a new attack. "Verm Breath." Vermillimon's attack hit Stingmon before the wasp could hurt him. Red mist spewed from it's mouth, sending Stingmon into a coughing fit.

Ryou desperately wished he could help the two of them, but he couldn't forget that he had his own job to do. Do looked downward, calling out, "Hold on, buddy, I coming for ya'!"

Chibimon was still hanging where he was, he's eyes half lidded from exhaustion. "R-Ryou..."

In moments, Ryou reached his friend. The ledge, he discovered, wasn't very wide at all. He willed himself not to look down, but that was pretty hard, considering he _had_ to look at Chibimon in order to get him. Chibimon was a good eight feet from the ladder. Swallowing his dread, he stepped onto the ledge and began inching his way across. If only Cyberdramon were here...

"Hang on," he choked, "almost there... There!" Once he had gotten to Chibimon, he found that he couldn't actually bind down, unless he wanted to take a nose dive into the shore line below. Closing his eyes for a moment, he turned himself ninety degrees to the left, and began to make it so that he was lying flat on his stomach. "I'm coming..."

Another load explosion from above sent flying derbies showering on them. The ground trembled, Chibimon lost his grip.

"IYA!" He shot his hand forward, grabbing for his friend as he fell. What he caught, however, wasn't Chibimon, but his bag strap. It wasn't as much Chibimon, but the contents of his duffel bad wasn't light, and it was very hard to hold on in his position. "Shimatta." 

There was no way he could move enough to lift Chibimon up...

"You'll have to climb up," Ryou called, straining his arm in an effort to not jostle the bag. "I can't lift you."

Chibimon's eyes drooped even more. "I can't, Ryou. Too tired... Daisuke..." His grip slipped even more.

"Chibimon, _wake_-_up_!!!"

"Does someone need a lift," came a cheerful voice.

Ryou blinked. "What..?" He didn't see anyone... Who...?

"Up here, silly!"

Ryou looked up slowly and... there was something that looked like a white rabbit with _really_ big ears. Not only that, it was using them to _float_. It couldn't be anything _but_ a digimon. But of course, he recognized it from the card game. 

Terriermon.

It laughed cutely. "Don't worry! Didn't someone call for a rescue? I'm here to help." Terriermon flew down to Chibimon, holding out his paws. "Grab on!" 

Chibimon looked at him sleepily, but nodded. He gave the digimon first his free paw, then the other, and he floated Chibimon safely onto the ledge. Chibimon collapsed in exhaustion, sighing thankfully. "Arigatou..."

Ryou struggled to sit upright, bringing up the bag and clutched it to his chest. "Chibimon, are you okay!?" Chibimon nodded slowly as Ryou snatched him up into a tight hug. "It's been a while, buddy..." 

Terriermon had landed on the ledge as well, beaming at them and looking very proud of itself.

Ryou couldn't express his relief and thanks as he smiled at the digimon. "Arigatou."

The digimon flashed him the victory sign and winked. "No problem at all!" 

As much as he would love to stay and humor the digimon with praise, Ryou had more pressing matters to attend to. "Thanks, but I need to get up to my friend..."

Shouts could be heard from above. 

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With one hard toss of its scaly body, Seadramon finally threw Ken from it's back, sending the boy sailing through the air. Ken tried to call to Stingmon, but he felt too sick. The ground rushed up to meet him, and for a second Ken wondered it he would black out. But before he could hit, Seadramon did something very unexpected at that moment. It snatched him up, snaking its tail tightly around him, stopping his fall. At first, Ken felt thankful, but reality caught up with him (a classic case of "out of the frying pan, into the fire"). 

Though Seadramon had stopped him from being killed in the fall, he was now suffocating to death. It was trying to crush him to death. The digimon sneered, leering at him savagely. "Sssqueeze!"

Ken cried out in pain, unable to move even a fraction of an inch. He screamed out using that last bit of air he had in his nearly flattened lungs, "_Stingmooon_!"

Stingmon turned from he's fight with Vermillimon, looking like he was suddenly overcome with pain, the same pain as Ken was feeling. He doubled forward, feeling as if his very body was going to be torn apart. Struggling through the discomfort, Stingmon shot at the digimon that held his partner, his eyes glowing an angry crimson. "_Ken_!" Though wishing he could otherwise, he didn't harm Seadramon terribly. The creature had _dared_ to hurt his partner, his friend, but Ken wouldn't want that. His nature was to be _kind_, not violent. 

Red light appeared from his fists as he struck down on Seadramon's tail. 

"Spiking Finish!!"

Seadramon roared, hissing in pain. As it withered about, it released Ken almost at once. Stingmon swooped low and caught him easily, but was then struck unexpectedly from behind. Ken suddenly felt an intense pain between his shoulder blades, though he wasn't sure why. He held on while Stingmon made a crash landing, rolling a few times before stopping. Ken struggled, craning is neck to see what had happened.

Since he was close enough to the ground, Vermillimon had taken the advantage, getting Stingmon by ramming him with its gigantic horn. "Do not interfere," it roared, stomping it's feet as if to intimidate them. "This is _our_ fight! _I_ will prove I am the strongest!!"

Enraged by the comment, Seadramon shot at the fire digimon, full speed. "I will _ssshow_ you I am the sstrongessst, weakling!"

Taken off guard, Vermillimon had no time to dodge, its legs couldn't carry it fast enough. Vermillimon could do nothing as Seadramon's tail wrapped around its stomach and proceeded to threw the both of them over the ledge and into the churning black sea below.

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Panicked, Ryou rushed over to his friend. He hadn't seen what had happened, but it must've been bad. Ken looked disheveled and thoroughly exhausted. Stingmon cradled Ken in his arms as the boy groaned, a hand on his forehead. I thin line of blood ran from a cut along his brow. 

Ryou almost forgot about Terriermon, who followed without question. He didn't even take notice of the boy that followed Terriermon. This kid seemed more curious than anything, but remained quiet as his partner digimon (obviously Terriermon) beckoned him on with a gesture of one of his long ears.

"Ken!" He stumbled to a halt, dropping in front of his friend right away. When he didn't answer right away, he gripped Ken's shoulders, shaking him gently. "Are you okay? Are you _hurt_? _Ken_?" He couldn't be hurt, he couldn't! Not after before...

"Ryou-san, quite it," Ken said, exasperated, blushing him off. "You're giving me a headache..."

Ryou slowly detached himself from his friend, donning a look of concern. He touched Ken's wound, causing the boy to his in pain. Ryou crossed his arms and scowled. "Are you completely mad? What do you think you are? I could've gotten _killed_." 

'I've missed you too much to loose you again...' But Ryou didn't say that out loud, it would be too embarrassing... But somehow, the small smile on Ken's lips told him that he already knew what Ryou was thinking...

A strange feeling in his heart... and......

Ken's.... heart......?

Ryou yelped, breaking out of his thoughts as Chibimon wriggled out of his arms and leaped at Stingmon, latching onto the giant humanoid wasp.

"Stingmon," he squealed in a cute voice. "I'm glad to seeee yooou!"

Stingmon starred down at Chibimon, sweatdropping. "Chibimon...?" It looked very odd, a little Chibimon trying to hug a giant bug. All Chibimon could really do was clamp onto his arm, from which Ryou was soon to pry him off. It was pretty easy considering the Rookie was already very weak.

"Calm down," Ryou insisted, "you've been through a lot. You'll just make yourself weaker." 

"But so've you," Chibimon replied, looked up at Ryou scraped face and tired eyes. 

He laughed softly. "Daijoubu, no problem. Ne, Ken?"

Ken just watched the interaction, smiling. But the expression soon washed away, replaced by a look of anxiety. "Ryou-san, we really need to get out of here. Those digimon... We can't hold them off unless we..." 

Ryou frowned. He knew what Ken meant to say.

Yeah, he knew what the ultimatum was. But it was common place for him to destroy digimon, to destroy their data. But Ken didn't work that way, he could tell. Ken didn't want to be driven to that...

"What we need," Ken said pointedly, with an air of intelligence that Ryou had never heard him use, "is a _computer_."

Ryou tipped his chin, thinking. "Well, I have a laptop in my bag," he bent over his duffels bag unzipped it, pulling the item out, "it should still work..." He jumped when Ken spun on him, his eyes fixed on his, and then the laptop. 

He looked... _scary_... When did Ken get so mature...?

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"You have a computer!?"

Ryou shot him an annoyed look. "Ken, I don't think- hey!" He tried to protest as Ken ripped the laptop from his grasp, but he wouldn't listen. "You could at least asked."

Ken was hardly listening, turning the machine on. "We can use this to send those digimon back."

"Back," he asked. "Back where?" He eyed the buildings. "We don't have accesses to the Digital World from here, it's more complicated than that..."

"I can explain later, Ryou-san, just give me a minute."

Ryou began to pace around Ken as he loaded the computer. "But how," he insisted, frustrated. "This just isn't right. We're sucked through a gate and spit out in the same place? What's the _point_?"

That was something to take into question.

Why _would_ a random digiport open, suck them both in, and spit them both out again? Is it possible to transport to different places in the Real World without going through the Digital World first...?

"Right now our only priority is getting those digimon back where they belong," Ken said, getting to the point. "If they have partners, they can be retrieved later. Right now they're going to kill each other!" 

Ryou looked like he was about to comment, but stopped himself, frowning.

The new boy now walked tentatively up to Ryou, tapping him on the shoulder. "Um, excuse me...?"

Ryou turned to him. "Hello..." He eyed Terriermon. "So, Terriermon's your partner?"

The dark haired boy looked at them oddly, as if there was something wrong with them. What could possibly wrong? This type of thing should be commonplace for kids with digimon by now, especially if everyone in the _world_ has a digimon.

Computer loaded!

"This is our last chance," he said under his breath. He held his dark D-3 to the screen. "Digiport open!"

Nothing.

"Digiport open," he repeated, louder. 

Nothing. The screen stayed completely blank. 

Baffled, Ken looked at his D-3. There appeared to be nothing wrong with it. Everything was functioning. So why couldn't it open a digiport!? Ken tried once more, just in case, but nothing changed... "I can't open it," he said finally in defeat. "I can't open it..."

A cry of horror caught their attention.

A boy with the red digimon was pointing in horror out at the water, his eyes as wide. The other boy with a Terriermon ran up to him. "What is it, Takato? _What is it_!?"

Takato gulped, backing away from the railing. The other boy did the same, his eyes narrowing. "Oh no..."

Worried, Ken got to his feet and looked over the railing as well. His heart sunk.

Bubbles of air were no longer rising to the surface. The water was completely still now. That could only mean that one of them was finished... or both...

Black, white and blue data began rising from the water...

'No,' Ken's mind screamed. 'That means it's finished! They can't come back in the Real World!'

"Masaka..." Horrified, Ken sank to his knees, tears forming in his eyes. "It's _gone_..."

"Ken," Ryou was saying quietly, "this is how digimon are... Live for this, they don't have any regrets."

No, that wasn't true. Why was Ryou _saying_ these things!?

They all screamed as the water suddenly began to raise, becoming a huge wave. Before any of them could move, the water hit, washing the boys and their digimon away from the ledge. Even Stingmon was caught in the tied, unable to move in time, but he clung to Ken, unwilling to let him be washed away. Once the water had cleared, all of them lay still, dizzy and confused. Stingmon let go of Ken, letting him sink to the cement in exhaustion. 

Ryou had been washed into the grass yards ahead, coughing hoarsely. "Ken!"

But Ken couldn't keep his eyes off the shape that had risen from the sea. Seadramon stood tall, hissing in pleasure as Vermillimon's data streamed up around it. The data changed from blue to red, moving toward Seadramon, as if it were... _absorbing_ its data...? No, digimon didn't do that... Do they...?

Seadramon finished whatever it was doing, the data had disappeared. Now it's ice blue colored eyes focused on Ken... and his D-3...

"_Tamer_...," it hissed to Ken, leering.

Ken flinched, stumbling to his feet and backing up into Stingmon's legs. "Iya..." Stingmon, sensing his partners dread, crouched into a attack position, talons raised. "I'm not a Tamer..." 'Tamer...? Where had he heard that before...?' Ken gulped, saying, "Onegi, Seadramon, you've _got_ to return to the Digital World."

"There isss no return, little Tamer... Thisss only power..." It eyed Stingmon for a moment, it's blood shot eyes narrowing. "Digivolve... I am more powerful! Be _my _Tamer!!!"

'This can't be happening, please, this can't be _happening_...'

"Stingmon..."

Before he could even blink, the Seadramon charged forward.

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To be continued in Chapter Four: A meeting of Tamers...

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A/N: PLEASE REVIEW!!! ^__^ Thanks to all the people who've read this. It's really fun writing this. 

Geuna~


	6. A meeting of Tamers...

Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to me. All characters and items within are all based around both the television show and the card game. None of these belong to me. (though I wish they did, like probably everyone else...)

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A Meeting Of Tamers

By Lady Geuna

Rated: PG

Summary: There is the Dark World, Dream World, Digital World, Real World, and the Tamer World. But what if Takato of the Tamer World discovers a key that could force all the worlds into one? The balance of the very worlds will shift like no one would've ever expected. 

Another Universe, but mostly canon. Takes place some time before they meet Ryou and the Devas, and before their digimon are able to digivolve to Ultimate.

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"..." speech

'....' thoughts 

/.../ around a SENTENCE will mean a flashback or memory.

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Names to know:

Rika:Ruki Makino

Henry:Jenrya Lee

Riley:Reike

Riley's Coworker(?): Megumi

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Translations other than the ones here can be seen in Chapter Two: Transferring... /Data Downloading/, k?

Itai- "ow"

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Chapter Four: A meeting of Tamers...

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The moment went by in a flash. It was all a blur of confusion, colors, lights... 

Screams... 

A streak of red. And then, data... 

Data flying all around him.

Ken watched in a state of shock as Seadramon disappeared, it's data turning into glowing blue fragments. Stingmon watched the fragments fly by, completely still and silent. 

Stingmon killed it. Because of him.

"Stingmon..." Stingmon looked down upon him, and Ken could tell his red eyes were full of regret... But nothing could be changed now. "Why?"

"I'm sorry, Ken," Stingmon said quietly. "I had no choice... He was going to hurt you... I _couldn't_ let him."

'I killed a digimon... I killed a digimon...'

"Not again..."

He found it difficult to hold himself together as his vision blurred and went out of focus as wetness filled his eyes. A pair of arms wrapped around his cold wet shoulders in an effort to comfort him. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lee did the only smart thing he could think of. He remained silent as the boy wept into his friend's arms. There was something about the older boy, but he wouldn't say anything at the moment. Lee simply approached from the side, glancing back at Takato, who was desperately trying to dry himself off, with no help from Guilmon (who kept shaking himself off, getting Takato dripping wet all over again). But his friend continued trying to dry off his pajama, the both of them freezing wet in the cold. 

He wondered for a moment where the digital field went, but didn't think about it too much. Digital fields have disappeared before, for their own reasons. Or someone else's.

The boy with dark hair seemed traumatized, horrified, his face turned from them and buried into his friends arms as he whispered what must've been words of comfort. "I killed it," he whispered. "I never wanted to kill again... Gods, I'm so, so sorry..."

Terriermon, who was starring sadly at the boy as well, tapped him on the head to get his attention. "Eh?"

"Lee-kun, why's he so sad?"

He frowned. By the sound of it, this kid had killed a digimon before... Or perhaps _many_ digimon? He must've, considering how badly he was taking it, but Lee didn't dare to ask. "I think he feels a lot... stronger about this than some of us, Terriermon..." He looked around, trying to change the subject. This was making him uneasy. "Hey, where's Ruki? Takato got here, but she's usually right behind..."

"Who are you?"

Lee blinked, startled. The older boy, the one Terriermon called 'Ryou', was glaring at him with both wariness and malice. He wasn't anything like he was a moment ago, serious, tense and fairly calm about the situation. Worried for his younger companion... Now he seemed almost... _dangerously_ protective of his friend. There was something about him that was terribly familiar, it was SO familiar it was almost annoying, on the tip of his mind...

Ryou took a deep breath and repeated, louder this time, "_Who_ are you? Why are we here?"

Lee crossed his arms defensively. "I really have no idea. What are _you_ doing here?" Did these two just get D-Arks or something? They had digimon. Where they new at this?

Lee jumped at the sound of a calm voice to his right.

"Who are these weirdo's?"

Lee frowned as Ruki stepped up next to him. Renamon appeared next to her, her gloved arms crossed and her head held high, as usual. Just like them to sneak around in silence. "They're not 'weirdo's', Ruki. They're kids like us." He thought for a moment, then asked, "Hey, when did you get here?"

She shrugged. "A few minutes ago... But Renamon thought we should stand back a little..." She eyed the lot of them and smirked. "It's a good thing, too. You're all going to turn into ice cubes if you stand around here forever. Since the digimon are gone you should leave."

Lee wrapped his arms around himself unconsciously, a weak attempt to protect himself from the chill he was feeling, starring at her in surprise. "Why didn't Renamon fight?"

Ruki looked away, her eyes to the ground. "She didn't want to." When she didn't say anymore, Lee didn't care to pry. 

Lee noticed Renamon starring intently at something. Following her gaze, he found her watching Stingmon carefully... In fact, she seemed rather tense. But it was no sooner had Lee noticed this that the Stingmon was enveloped in a bright white light. In an instant, it had become a smaller creature that look very much like caterpillar. A Wormmon, unless he was mistaken. It crawled up to his partner, nuzzling his knee. 

"Ken-chan... I'm sorry..."

'Ken' smiled, brushing away tears and picking up the digimon. "Wormmon," was all he muttered before hugging the Wormmon tightly. "Don't worry, it's not your fault..." A small blue digimon, a Veemon, clamped into Ryou's arm, looking sad.

This looked like it was going to be a difficult situation.

Ryou patted Ken on the shoulder before standing, still dripping wet and shivering. "Look, if you don't tell me _who_ the Hell you people are, I _swear--_..."

"You swear _what_, tough guy!" 

Both Lee paled as Ruki stepped forward, glaring right back. 

Ryou took a step back, looking a bit sheepish now and not at all intimidating. Maybe because she was a girl...? "Um, look lady, I didn't mean anything..."

Ruki raised an eyebrow, examining him like he were distasteful, but also like she was trying to remember something. "Don't I know you from somewhere...?" Then her eyes widened, and a horrified look crossed her face. "YOU!"

Ryou's eyes also widened in shock, and he was struggling to contain some sort of smirk. "Oh... Hello again..."

Lee blinked, looking between the two. "You know each other?"

Ruki huffed, looked away. "I wish I could forget."

"It's a long story," Ryou explain shortly, reverting his attention back to Ken.

Ruki didn't comment on this, but said, "Why is Takato imitating a sea base?"

Lee paused. "What?" He turned to look where Takato had been a moment ago. "But I don't-" He stopped when he found Takato standing right behind him, his mouth hanging open and his eyes bulging out of his head. Guilmon was watching his partner's reaction with interest and Terriermon started giggling. "Takato? What's the matter?"

Takato's mouth flapped a few times, but managed to get out a few words.

"O.... Oh... MAN!!! TH-THEY'RE REALLY...!!!"

Lee backed up. "Takato, what's wrong with you!?" He looked like he'd seen a ghost or something.

He gasped a few more times, pointing with both hands at Ryou, Ken and their digimon. Both the boys in question looked right back with very startled, and very baffled expressions. "D-Don't you recognize who they are!?" He suddenly rushed forward, stopped right in front of Ryou. Ryou's eyes bugged out as Takato poked him in the arm, _hard_.

"_Excuse_ me," Ryou said sharply, backing up a step. "I don't think I like you doing that." He eyed Takato warningly.

"OMG YOU'RE _REAL_! YOU'RE _HERE_! I never expected...!" He pointed at Ken, who scooted back a bit. "And you're _him_! The _Kaiser_! Well, you're _good_ now, so that doesn't really matter, I guess..."

Lee was totally confused now, especially when Ken's eyes narrowed threateningly, his expression darkening. 

Then it all hit.

The Wormmon. That device, it wasn't a D-Ark, it was a _D-3_, like in the _game_... A _Dark_ D-3. And that expression... Put a pair of yellow framed purple tinted sunglasses over them and...

"Oh man..." He slowly put a hand over his mouth, his eyes widening like Takato's. "H-How...?"

Only Ruki was left now to stare at both him and Takato, glaring at Ryou now and then, looking annoyed and aggravated. "Can someone _please_ tell me what you're gawking about?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reike frowned, examining the new data that was coming in fast. Most of it didn't make sense, but she was working on it.

"When will Yamaki get back," she asked the darkened room, which was only light by the single large computer screen. She was alone now. Megumi had gone for a break after all that happened, probably to get a drink. And probably something _strong_...

She sighed, typing in a few commands in order to follow the data streams to there origin. Obviously, if they didn't originate from the Digital Plane, then they must have come from another. The data streams would lead right back. One in particular caught her eye.

It was odd... It was like the data of the Digital Plane, all the data going to this other Plane was... Dark...

She didn't know how else to explain it.

Almost all the data appeared in a spectrum of black and violet. 

Violet, in a sense is the same thing as darkness. It's the only form of spectrum that light cannot pass through. So in a sense... As black is the absence of light, violet is it's destroyer.

"Boy," she muttered to herself, "that's a cheery thought... What's the matter with you, Reike?"

Reike adjusted her visor just to make sure she wasn't receiving any sort of interference. No, what she was seeing was correct... But the computer was having trouble deciphering the data. It was like there two new anomalies that bioemerged hours before. Unless they could directly analyze them, they couldn't get a tracer lock on them long enough to understand how they function.

'Can't hurt to analyze it a bit further.'

Typing in a few more commands, she send in a prob to go into the Dark Matter stream.

(A/N: Yes, in case you're wondering, this "Dark Matter" IS the Dark World. It's the only way I could describe it. And yes, there is such a thing as Dark Matter. It exists in space, and is impossible to penetrate with light. And when I mean impossible, I mean _IMPOSSIBLE_!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be Continued in Chapter Five: Darkness rising...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	7. Darkness rising...

Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to me. All characters and items within are all based around both the television show and the card game. None of these belong to me. (though I wish they did, like probably everyone else...)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Meeting Of Tamers

By Lady Geuna

Rated: PG

Summary: There is the Dark World, Dream World, Digital World, Real World, and the Tamer World. But what if Takato of the Tamer World discovers a key that could force all the worlds into one? The balance of the very worlds will shift like no one would've ever expected. 

Another Universe, but mostly canon. Takes place some time before they meet Ryou and the Devas, and before their digimon are able to digivolve to Ultimate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PLEASE keep in mind, I know ALL about Ryou thanks to authors who've given tips and important info ^__~ Authors ~ Ajora (Wind Crystal), Alex Warlon, and WithoutMorals, Thank you much!. The thing is, a lot of this information contradicts each other. But I'll do my best, at this point, the only thing that's different is the Daisuke and Ryou have _different_ digimon of the same type, though I know they are one and the same. 

EXTRA special thanks to FF. Net author Ajora (Wind Crystal). Ajora is the most amazing digimon author I've ever known when it comes to Ryou. She's like the.... the Ryou GURU! ^__^ She's really awesome, and offered a LOT of help without being asked, and that was so very kind of her. Thanks, Ajora.

Geuna~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"..." speech

'....' thoughts 

/.../ around a SENTENCE will mean a flashback or memory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Names to know:

Rika:Ruki Makino

Henry:Jenrya Lee

Susie:Koharu Lee

Jerry:Jyuri Katoh

Kazu:Hirokazu Shioda

Riley:Reike

Riley's Coworker(?) :Megumi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Translations other than the ones here can be seen in Chapter Two: Transferring... /Data Downloading/, k?

Wata kushi wa _name_ desu- "My name is _name_."

anno...- "excuse me..."

oi- hey

doko/doko wa- where?/where is...?

Ja/ Ja ne- "good-bye" or "bye", wither in the quick form, or in the casual or friendly form, as you would you to someone younger than you, or to a close friend.

matte!- "what!"

kuso- "cr*p", "sh*t"

gomen- "sorry"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Five: Darkness rising...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taking a deep breath, Ryou tried to regain his composure... But with Ken like this...

"Please," he said slowly, "Can someone just give me _one_ straight answer?" Was that too much to ask?

The kid with the goggles, Takato, immediately jumped to attention. He surprised Ryou by jumping forward and grabbing his hand, shaking it furiously. "I'm Takato!!! Matsuda Takato!! This is my partner, Guilmon!" He gestured to the red digimon who was now trying to sniff Chibimon curiously. Chibimon was trying to jump down to meet him, but Ryou refused, whispering something about, 'You don't know what kind of people these are...' "And you're Akiyama Ryou! I've played the game a million times! You're in a tone of games with Taichi and Ken and stuff, played them all!" Ryou was frozen and completely stumped as Takato turned to Ken, grabbing his hand in a similar fashion, nearly ripping his arm out of it's socket. "And Ichijouji _Ken_! I've watched every episode!"

Ryou was almost dizzy now. This was too much to take in all of a sudden... Though when he thought about it, he'd had worse things thrown at it... 

Takato didn't seemed to listen to him anyway. 

Well, at least he could try talking to him. Maybe the boy would calm down and start talking sense? "So, you're Takato...? Who are you?" He pointed the other two kids and their digimon, who had been standing in silence during Takato's rambling.

Lee bowed. "Wata kushi wa, Lee Jenrya desu. This is Terriermon, who I think you've met." 

Terriermon grinned, waving. "Hiya!"

Ryou nodded at the digimon, smiling. "Yeah, I remember..." 

"And this," Lee said, pointing at the girl behind him, "is Makino Ruki ("Who you seem to know...") and Renamon." Ryou noted that he looked as jumpy as his friend, but was controlling himself with much more success. "It's kind of hard to say this isn't a surprise..."

"What's a surprise," Ken asked, standing with Wormmon in his arms. Ryou smiled a bit, happy to see the Ken had collected himself. Then Ken asked Takato, his eyes slightly cold, "How did... you know about "_me"_?" There was some meaning to Ken's words that Ryou didn't get, but he was sure it wasn't something pleasant. 

Ruki groaned loudly. "Can we _please_ do this somewhere else? The police should be coming any moment now." She turned, Renamon following her slowly. Boy, she hadn't changed at all since that card tournament... "Or better yet, _you_ guys do it somewhere else. I'm going home."

"Oi, matta!" Ryou jumped up, running to Ruki's side. She glared at him, refusing to say anything that might start a conversation. "Hey, I know we got off at a bad start... _again_... but..." He glanced back at Ken, who was now under the very intense attention of Takato, but he looked like he was taking better now... Ken's eyes were glued to the kids goggles for some reason... "My friend and I are.... Well, we're not from around here, you see..."

Ruki snorted. "And where are you from, Miyazaki? Osaka? No, let me guess, _Hokkaido_? 

He sighed. "You're right, actually..." She gave him a look of disbelief, but he continued. "And Ken's from around here but _not_ from around here," he thought for a moment, trying to think of the right words. Being polite was the best was to go with this girl, but she didn't seem very cooperative. "But... We don't have any money, you see, and--..." 

"I'm not giving _you_ money," she interrupted quickly, still looking very disbelieving, and sort of apprehensive now.

"No, no, that's not it," he insisted, keeping a totally straight face. "We really need somewhere to at least get _dry_, Ruki. Come on, can you help us out once?" She just looked at him now, her face expressionless. There was a long pause, where added, "Please...?" 

Still no reaction. 

"You... expect _me_, to let you come to my house. _You_, who I'm less than fond of, and-and...," She glanced at Ken, "and a total stranger?"

Ryou sighed. "You're still angry because I beat you at the card game, aren't you?"

There was a sudden silence, and even Takato and Lee were looking their way, both looking surprised.

Ruki had gone as still as a post, her eyes narrowing dangerously. For a moment Ryou thought she was about to slap him, but she didn't move a muscle. Renamon leaned over and whispered something into Ruki's ear. 

Ryou strained to hear, but Renamon had already straightened up, eyeing him. 

Ruki looked torn, her eyes narrowing even more at Ryou, her jaw clinched. _"Fine_!" her voice creaked ever so slightly, her cheeks flushing. "But don't expect to stay!" Then she stomped off. Renamon vanished.

'It.... worked...? It actually _worked_?' 

Ryou smiled, looking down at Chibimon. "Yes! Now Chi--" Chibimon wasn't on his arm anymore. "Chibimon... Doko...?" 

He turned to find Chibimon playing furiously with Guilmon and Terriermon. Wormmon stayed quietly with Ken, who was waiting for Ryou patently. Takato had calmed down completely, and was talking with Ken and Lee. 

"We're going with Ruki, Ken, come on!" He snatched up Chibimon from his new found company, quickly saying his apologies, and rushed over to his friend, grabbing his arm. "We can go with her," he jabbed a finger in Ruki direction, "and get warm. We're going to die out here if we stay wet like this." He noted that Ken was shivering just as badly as he was. He didn't like seeing his friends so uncomfortable.

"Y-You actually... How do you know her, Ryou-san?"

"I.. I'll explain later if I can, okay?" Ken agreed to this, and Ryou bowed quickly to Takato and Lee. "Thanks for your time. Ja." He began to rush off when Lee stopped him.

"Matte! I mean..." Lee paused. "Why you're here, I mean... We're just as confused as you guys are..." 

"There's been a misunderstanding," he said flatly. Ken's expression said the exact same thing. "I very _big_ misunderstanding..."

"And, well..." Lee couldn't seem to find the right words.

"Come _on_," Ruki called in an annoyed tone. She had stomped up ahead, waiting for them impatiently. "I don't have all day, and I think I hear sirens."

Ryou didn't like the sound of that. "We need to go, _now_." 

Ken nodded, and together them ran after Ruki after she began to leave again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Takato watched as the two "fictions made flesh" ran off after Ruki, the older boy practically dragging his friend along. He still couldn't believe it... "Lee... They're really here..."

Lee nodded. "Yeah..." He glanced back, his eyes widening. "Uh oh."

Takato looked too, seeing flashes of red in the distance. "_Police_!!" 

'I'm too young to go to jail!! They'll see Guilmon, they'll lock him in a cage in the zoo!! Do tests on him!!!' 

Guilmon saw the flashes of red, smiling. "Oooh, pretty. Anno... Takato, what's wrong?"

"I'll explain later, Guilmon, but we gotta run! Maybe we should follow Ruki...?"

Terriermon sneezed, rubbing his nose. "Gomen. Excuse me..." 

Lee nodded. "I guess since they're going to get warm, we might as well. Our digimon'll catch cold out here, and so will we. And if the police get a look at Guilmon and Terriermon...," He patted Terriermon on the head, "I don't want to know what they'd do." 

He smiled. "If they managed to get Ruki to let them come to her house, we shouldn't have problem..."

"But Takato," Guilmon said, "I remember not being very welcome at her house..."

Lee shrugged. "It doesn't matter! Let's get out of here!" He began running down the hill, dodging rubble and uneven earth which had been the aftermath of the earlier battle. Takato followed instantly, Guilmon close behind. "Guilmon better hurry up, something big and red is easy to spot!"

One way to make Guilmon move a bit faster. "Hey, Guilmon, bet you can't outrun _me_!" 

Guilmon laughed. "I bet I can!"

And Lee screamed, "_Enough_ of that already and just _run_!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yamaki stood, watching from nearby as the now much larger group of children ran off from the disaster sight. He'd just gotten there, but he'd seen enough. Those two boys and their creatures... The two at least, _they_ were the ones that came from the alien plane. They must be.

He heard his cell phone ringing in his jacket pocket. Yamaki pulled it out as he watched the police draw nearer. 

It looks like the "higher powers" had managed to hold the police off long enough. If they saw a digimon... Well, Yamaki didn't want to think of that. People who don't know what's really going on will make far too big a deal of this than necessary. They would end up walking into forbidden territory and end up getting in the way.

He stepped into the car and slammed the door shut, signaling for the driver to leave. He flipped out his cell and pressed 'talk'. "What?"

"Sir." It was Reike, who sounded very out of breath. "We have some new information that you should find interesting..."

"It'd better be good." He starred out the dark window at the bay, which was now creaked and ravaged, like someone had tried to tear it apart (they probably had, too). "Is it something to do with these new signals?" On this thought he looked around to see if he could catch sight of the two "boys", but didn't see them. It was either too dark or they were out of visual range.

"Yes. We've uncovered a few interesting things, actually. It seems... We've found data streams, similar to those found entering from the Digital Plane to this one. Only, these streams enter somewhere totally different." She paused. "Sir, I think we've discovered more planes other that the Digital and our own."

"How is that possible. There aren't any other planes! There can't be!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reike rubbed her eyes with one hand while holding the phone with the other. Sometimes Yamaki tested her patience. Oooh, she could be at a spa right now, but no, she had to deal with all these Hell.

"We are _sure_, sir, there is no mistaking it, I assure you. But unlike the Digital Plane, these others are no "open". Nothing that may be identified as an anomaly can pass through them as far as we can tell. Megumi is doing the research now. However, it seems that a few of these Planes are very active."

""Active"?" Yamaki sounded very skeptical. "What do you mean by "active"?" 

"As I said," she explained, "there are multiple Planes. I can only see _possible_, not definite, entry into one or two of them. While I tried analyzing them, I sent in a prob into one. It consisted of mostly what appeared to be some sort of Dark Matter. It tried to..." She stopped, remembering the event that happen only a few minutes ago. "... It was like it was trying to _absorb_ itself into our system. I don't know any other way to describe it sir..."

That had been just a few minutes ago. It had been an unexpected reaction, but they had been able to stop it...

"We managed to lock it out of the system, and it was probably only acting after being stimulated by the prob-" 

"I don't want _anymore_ unauthorized probes."

"But sir-"

"I don't want to hear any arguments, I want to hear _results_."

".... I will have the data ready for when you get back. And I must seriously recommend that we try to _delete_ any Planes that seem hostile."

"I'll take that under advisement. Keep monitoring these "Planes". If anything odd happens, or if another try's invading the system, shut _everything_ down. You are the only on to blame for what almost occurred, and it well also me your fault if it happens again."

Reike bit her tongue, holding back an insult she so desperately wanted to spit out. "Yes, sir..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little while later....

Ken understood everything now. But didn't... "This is...."

"Confusing," Ryou offered seriously. 

"Yes..."

Ryou sighed, testing his hair for dryness. "Gomen... Maybe you should try opening the gate again?" He frowned when he found his hair was still damp, muttering, "_Kuso_," under his breath. 

All of them sat in Ruki's old Japanese style living room. She had a very nice house, the shoin-zukuri architectural style with symmetrical rooms and sliding paper doors. Ken loved it. He was only used to living in an apartment...

They had to be quiet, as to not waken her mother or grandmother. She had been less than pleased when Takato, Lee and their digimon followed, uninvited, but she didn't have much of a choice in the end. Each one of the boys now sat with a large towel, the heat to the room turned up, trying to get dry as they finally made some sense of all hat had happened in the past few hours.

"I can't say I'm too surprised," Ken said. "I've known there were different worlds out there to begin with. Takeru told me about them, and I've seen them for myself... But I never expected there to be one like this..." He looked to Ryou. "I'm not from this world, but you are, aren't you, Ryou-san..."

Ryou nodded. "Yeah... But I don't understand how I couldn't 've seen something like this. There's no explanation... The TV shows, that games... And somehow I never _noticed_...?"

"I never played the video games," Ruki said, "or watched the TV show." She was standing the corner with Renamon, not really wanting to be apart of the little gathering. Ken was becoming uneasy by the way Renamon kept starring at Wormmon, but his partner hadn't noticed, far too engrossed in a conversation with Terriermon to care.

"Maybe you were never meant to know," Lee offered, leaning back. "Maybe _we_ were never meant to know..." He pondered, muttering, "A balance... Maybe that's it..."

"What do you mean," Ken asked.

"If what you say is true," Lee explained, "than every world has a sorta of 'balance', right? Maybe we were never meant to know. Maybe _Ryou_ was never meant to know..."

Ryou held up his digivice, a D-3... "I can understand that, but I don't understand _this_. Why would my D-Ark degrade to a D-3 like this?"

Lee shrugged, shaking his head. "I have no idea..."

He spoke to Takato, who was listening intently and thinking hard, "You say that you're responsible... The... _card_, and the 'D-Ark' ("Like Ryou used to have, right?")...?"

Takato nodded sheepishly. "I really didn't mean to... I mean, I didn't _know_..." He blushed. "Gomen..."

It was obvious by now that seeing Ken and Ryou in reality was like a fantasy come true for Takato. Sure, Ken was used to the attention as the "Rocket" in his world, but this was ridiculous. Ryou didn't seem to care at all. Lee had been startled by their appearance, but now seemed over that, and Ruki didn't care one little bit. Any thoughts of Ryou seemed to under-whelm her...

Ruki rolled her eyes. "What were you thinking, Takato? Trying to open a _Digiport_."

"I didn't know," Takato insisted. "It wasn't anything close to what I _thought_ would happen..."

"Can you think of anything," Lee asked, "anything that might explain why this happened?"

Guilmon, who had Chibimon sitting on his head, smiled at Ken happily. "Takato says he watches your show all the time!"

Ken looked first at Guilmon, a dragon type, and then at Takato, eyeing the boys goggles. He couldn't help but smile. "Two guesses of who your favorite digidestined is..."

Takato blushed even deeper, but a wide grin spread over his face. "You can tell!?" His hand reached up and touched his goggles almost unconsciously.

"They look like Daisuke's," Chibimon said, looking up at the goggles as well. "But we're late for the picnic now, Ken! Daisuke's going to be worried!"

Ryou frowned deeply. "And that's another thing. Chibimon has already found his own partner, and _Monodramon_ is gone. Can't work that way."

"Do you have any idea where Monodramon could be," Lee asked.

"Back in Hokkaido, I'm guessing, but I can't leave Ken until we can find I way to get him back to his own world... I'm not sure what I should do..."

Ken said, "Then I need to find I way back as soon as possible."

"You can't open a Digiport," Ryou said. "It's useless."

"We were in a "Digital Field" when we appeared here, right?" Ken suggested. "Based on what you've told me about them, they _may_ be my ticket out of here. If I can somehow get to the Digital World, we can just go to the Real World from there."

"It makes sense," Ryou agreed. "But we can't be sure... This Digital World may be very different from the one you know, Ken."

"It's a risk he may have to take," Lee said sullenly.

Ken really didn't like that thought... "Can you call one of them up," he asked. "Like a digiport, I mean."

Ruki shook her head. "They just show up, and we never know when or where." 

Ken felt defeated somehow. "What do I do then until then? Just wait around? I mean, what if one never shows up...?"

"They'll show up," Takato assured him. "They always do!"

"It's be okay as long as be keep a clear head, right?" Ryou said. "We can wait it out, we've been through worse, right?"

Ryou was really getting to him. 'How can he be so _calm_ about this!?' Ken sure was, being stuck here, with no way of getting back or communicating with his friends. He'd tried his D-Terminal (which had been in his pocket) once was able to sit down and think, but for some reason it was unable to send. Ryou had tried the same with his D-Terminal (which appeared in his duffel bag at some point), but he couldn't send, either. But after all, Ryou didn't have that much to worry about. He was already in his own world.... And that was also a very negative thought... What if he never saw Ryou again after this...? Then a thought occurred to Ken...

"Chibimon."

Chibimon blinked up at Ken. "Hai?"

"You... I'll need to take Chibimon back with me. He doesn't belong here, either. Daisuke will be missing him-"

"Wait-a-minute," Takato said suddenly, slapping his palm. "I think I get it... It makes sense now!" Everyone looked at him, wondering exactly what he was talking about, and then to Lee he said, "Lee, you remember the WonderSwan game, right?"

Lee nodded slowly. "Yeah, but-" He stopped, his eyes widening as though in realization. "That's it! Of course! Takato, you're a genius!"

"What are you talking about," Ruki demanded. Ken was wondering the same thing...

"In the video game," Lee explained, "Tag Tamers. Ryou's digimon was a Veemon. _This_ Chibimon." He gestured to the Chibimon sitting in Ryou's lap. "Also, in the game _Ryou_... Well, I think he had a D-3 in the game at some point... They both did. It's been a long time since I've played the game..."

Takato continued, "I had the game out on my computer when I slashed the Digiport card, and it got totally fried... I guess it has something to do with all this..."

There was a long silence.... Then...

Chibimon spoke up loudly so Ryou could hear. "I'm hungry."

Ryou frowned, plucking his digimon from Guilmon's head. "That's rude... You really haven't changed a bit since I last saw you. What would your partner think of that?" 

"Daisuke would be hungry, too!" he replied.

Ken sighed. "He's right. Daisuke _would_... Actually, Daisuke can be even more rude than Chibimon, sometimes..."

Ryou blinked at Ken, and after a moment he continued pointedly, "You can't just expect food every waking moment..." He turned to Ruki with a clam expression that almost _too_ clam... "Anno, Makino-san, may we...?"

"NO! You're dry now, don't expect me to _feed_ you now." She looked at the floor, refusing to look at Ryou face. It was a bit dark, but Ken saw her cheeks pinking slightly. Ryou hadn't seemed to notice, though, his face still set and serious. He wouldn't be intimidated. It seemed that Ryou and Ruki had some sort of history that didn't have anything to do with romance. Ruki had some sort of grudge against Ryou... 

Ryou had managed to get along very well with Takato and Lee now that they'd been properly introduced. But Ruki... My, Ryou really did get on her bad side... But what she'd said did raise a point.

"Ne, where are we going to stay...?"

Takato groaned. "I wish I could take you guys in, but I don't think it's a good idea to be bringing friends over at 1:30 in the morning. I'm probably grounded for life as we speak..."

"I'll take one of them." 

All eyes turned to the one who spoke. Ruki still stood with her eyes to the floor, a blank expression on her face. 

"I'll take one," she repeated, glancing up at Renamon, who didn't even blink or look down at her. "Ichijouji and Wormmon can stay in the guest room... You'll have to clear it out yourself, it hasn't been used in years."

Ken paused, seeing the once again mystified expressions on the two boy Tamers' faces, but nodded thankfully. "Arigatou... But what about Ryou-san?" He looked at his friend hopefully, who looked not too pleased that he would be leaving Ken. His eyes were set on Ruki's form, but Ken couldn't figure out why. Maybe he didn't trust her? He hadn't known Ryou to be so, and he _knew_ Ruki, after all. But... It _had_ been a long time. Ken didn't want to be separated from him so suddenly...

Lee raised his hand helpfully. "I'm sure my dad won't mind. You'll have to handle Koaru though, she's a real pain. And keep Chibimon away from her." 

Terriermon shivered.

He smiled kindly at Ryou. "How about it, Ryou?"

Ryou nodded his head, glancing once at Ken. "Thanks. Uh, how far away do you live...?"

Lee looked toward the door and said, "On the other side of town."

He grimaced. "That's going to be a long walk, but..."

Ruki stepped into the middle of their little circle, a stern look on her face. "I hate to say this... No, correction, I _don't_ hate saying this. Get. out. of. my. house."

Ryou raised an eyebrow at her, muttering, "That's rude." 

"No, _this_ is rude." She closed her eyes, turning her face toward Renamon. "Renamon, could you help these boys find their way out?"

Renamon stepped closer, cracking his knuckles loudly.

All the boys, including a very reluctant Ryou, were on their feet instantly, discarding there towels in a mess on the floor, hurrying for the exit. Lee opened the sliding door as Terriermon hopped into his head. "You don't have to be all rough and tough, Ruki, we're leaving."

Ryou grabbed up his duffel bag, looking reluctant to leave Ken so soon. "Are you going be all right here? It doesn't feel right leaving you alone...." 

Ken nodded. He realized his stomach was knotted. Maybe he could go with Ryou...? No, that would be intruding...

"And if she try's pushing you around," Ryou continued, "just send me an email." He held up his D-Terminal. "After all, Ruki doesn't have the most endearing personality..."

Ken nodded with a half smile. He really hated that Ryou had to be so far away after seeing him again. "Yeah, I think I will. Don't worry, I'll have Wormmon with me after all." He smiled down at Wormmon, who was saying goodbye to Terriermon and Guilmon. Chibimon was attached to Guilmon's head not, seeming very content with his fellow dragon type digimon. "Can we meet tomorrow...?"

"We usually meet at Guilmon's hideout," Lee said. 

Guilmon nodded excitedly. "We have lots and lots of bread!"

Takato grinned. "This is so great! I can show you around! You can meet some of my friends! Oooh, Kenta and Kazu won't _believe _this! And _Jyuri_!"

"Urusai, Goggle Head," Ruki hissed under her breath, "My Mother will hear you!"

Lee shook his head in exasperation, looking between Takato and Ruki. "I don't think telling all your friends is the right thing to do, Takato." 

"We can have fun," Terriermon said excitedly, looking toward Wormmon, who returned the motion. 

'They were getting along well, at least.'

"Ruki can bring you tomorrow... That is if she doesn't mind..." All eyes turned toward the girl in question. 

Ruki just shrugged, refusing to speak in the presence of Ryou. _Boy_, did he bring out her bad side. When they made no signs of movement she finally said, "It's almost 2:00 a.m., leave!"

This time they obeyed. Ryou and Chibimon (still attached to Guilmon's head) waved at Ken and Wormmon as the group left into the hall, disappearing toward the front door. 

It was suddenly very silent.....

Hopefully things weren't as bad as they seemed...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outside, a black car watched the dark house, making sure to keep a close check on one of the house new occupants...

"We have the target located, sir," a man said into the car phone. "What are your orders?"

"Very good. Make sure he doesn't go anywhere without us knowing. Continue watching until I tell you otherwise, understood?"

"Yes, sir."

Yamaki hung up on the other end, and the man continued to watch the house...

But Hypnos wasn't the only one watching...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be Continued in Chapter Six: Understanding and learning...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't know exactly how to play that card game, but I'm reading up on the rules not. I understand the basics, though.


	8. Understanding and learning...

Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to me. All characters and items within are all based around both the television show and the card game. None of these belong to me. (though I wish they did, like probably everyone else...)

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It's very important for you all to know. This story has been majorly been redone. If you have the chance, you may want to re-read the previous chapters, because they will _not_ be was you remember them (at least for the most part).

Sorry this was so late in coming out.

Geuna~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Meeting Of Tamers

By Lady Geuna

Rated: PG

Summary: There is the Dark World, Dream World, Digital World, Real World, and the Tamer World. But what if Takato of the Tamer World discovers a key that could force all the worlds into one? The balance of the very worlds will shift like no one would've ever expected. 

Another Universe, but mostly canon. Takes place some time before they meet Ryou and the Devas, and before their digimon are able to digivolve to Ultimate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"..." speech

'....' thoughts 

/.../ around a SENTENCE will mean a flashback or memory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Six: Understanding and learning...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few minutes after Ryou and the others had left, Ken and Ruki stood there in an uncomfortable (at least in Ken's opinion) silence. Then, finally, Ruki turned to Renamon, saying, "Make sure they don't hang around. I don't trust them to not the poke their noses into things." Renamon nodded, stealing one last glance at Wormmon, and disappeared. 

Ken found this very interesting. "How can she disappear like that? What type of digimon is she?"

"She's Renamon," was all she said, as if that was the full and obvious answer. "You might as well find the guest room. It's down the hall. And _don't_ go poking through any doors, my Grandmother will probably end up attacking you and your worm." Ken hide his offence to her referring to Wormmon as "worm", obeying her command. As long as he was a guest, he would be polite....

"Kindness".... What was that saying...? Oh yeah... "You're greatest strength will often be your greatest weakness".

'Wish I could've gone with Ryou...'

"You can borrow some of my pajamas," she continued without missing a beat, glancing up and down the hall quickly, as if to check if anyone was up. "I'm sure I have clean pair somewhere." 

Ken blushed slightly. "Borrow _your_ pajamas...? Won't they be a bit small...?"

Ruki eyed him up and down, then looked him in the face. "I don't think you'll have much of a problem." 

He wasn't sure whether to be insulted or what, but before Ken could protest, she had already disappeared into the dark hall. Ken stood there a moment, then bent down to pick up Wormmon, who looked like he was itching to be held.

"Why did Ryou and Chibimon have to leave," Wormmon asked sadly, nuzzling Ken's still damp shirt. "Chibimon should be with Daisuke. And Ryou. It's been so long since we've seen him..."

"I know, but it was inconvenient for our new friends. You understand." He smiled, forcing himself to brighten up. "And we'll get Chibimon back to Daisuke soon enough... And Ryou back to Monodramon, okay? Now let's go find that room, shall we?" He too stepped into the darkened hall.

Ken hadn't been in a traditional Japanese house for a while, but to him it was like going through a wooden tunnel. Had it be daytime, it might've looked cheerful. In the dark the colors were dulled, making the place look sad....

Ken didn't really care for darkness...

The floorboards made no sound as to headed down the hall. He hadn't been told in which direction the room might be found, but his guess would be to the right. He passed a kitchen, and a few other sliding door rooms, but he was too nervous to open them, fearing the potential attack of a angry grandmother. The image of a old women running after him, welding a bloom over her head make him almost laugh, but he held it back. 

Finally, after the hall took a left turn, to came across the absolute late door. 'Okay, this must be it...'

Taking a deep breath, be carefully slide the door open, looking inside. It was complete blackness as far as he could tell, as he felt his along the wall for a light switch. After his hand bumped into two small picture frames, he found it, clicking it on. The room was flooded with the faint white glow of a ceiling light.

The room was very simply and plain (much like Ruki's room), with a few boxes lines up against the far wall near the dresser. A rolled up futon lay in the center of the room. Wormmon settled on Ken's shoulder for a moment as he bent over and unrolled the cloth, sending up a thin cloud of dust. This room hadn't been used in a long time...

"Doesn't look very welcoming, does it?"

Wormmon jumped from Ken's shoulder and onto the floor, landing with a soft _thump_, crawling onto the futon. "It's not so bad, Ken-chan." He curled up on the blue fabric, his eyes shining contently. 

He couldn't help but chuckle. "Or course _you_ don't think it's that bad, your ideal place to sleep is up in a tree." 

Ken felt someone tap him on the shoulder, and he jumped, spinning around, but it was only Ruki holding a black flannel night set. She dumped to load into his arms before he could even open his mouth. As he silently appraised the clothes, he said, "You thought I was going to give you a nightgown or something, didn't you?"

"No," he lied quickly, but for some reason Ken knew that she wouldn't believe him. He brought the pajamas into the room and set them next to Wormmon, who had fallen asleep already. 'Poor thing's tired the battling....' He eyed the night set questionably at he picked it up. They _did_ look like they would fit him. They looked big enough for Ryou, even. "Are these your father's?"

He knew immediately that he said something wrong, judging by the way Ruki stiffened, her eyes narrowing. "I live with my mom."

Ken didn't want to venture so far as to ask whether her father was dead or just _gone_, he the very idea was simply out of the question. So he tried saying something, to break the silence that had settled upon them. "Then these are... _your_ pajamas...?" 

Ruki's expression had "softened" (if you can even call it that) a little, but the look she was giving him was still very stern. "What? You expect because I'm a girl to where something pink of frilly?"

Images of Mimi flashed in his head, and once again to kept himself from laughing aloud. "Um, _no_..." Well, she did seem like a real tomboy, so it wasn't all that surprising. But how could one young girl be so hard and _cold_...? It even reached her eyes...

"Yeah right." She left the room again, but called back so quietly that Ken had to strain to hear, "Just get changed, okay?"

Ken groaned. "Yeah, Wormmon," he mutter sarcastically, "this isn't all that bad..." The he began to quickly from his still very damp clothes, at least feeling thankful that he would be wearing something warm and _dry_ again...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ruki starred down the hall towards the guest room, arms crossed, leaning against the wall. The dark didn't bother her at all. She waited... Then she knew.

"Come out, Renamon."

In a yellow flash, her partner was at her side, her fur shockingly visible even in the shadow (but it was only like that when Renamon wanted to be seen, Ruki had figured...). "They're all gone," Renamon confirmed for her, her eyes set on Ruki. Ruki didn't say anything in response, still starring down the hallway. It was an easy silence... Ruki didn't like talking anyway. Then she turned and entered her room. As expected, Renamon followed and closed the door behind them. "Why did you let the boy stay, Ruki?"

Ruki tensed slightly, then gave a small smiled. 'It's odd sometimes how she can read my thoughts...'

"I don't know," she whispered, looking away from Renamon, not wanting to meet her gaze. If she did, than 

Renamon would be able to look into her soul... A thing that she didn't want anyone to see... Too afraid of what it might be like... "I guess it has something to do with you."

Renamon's ears perked slightly, a sign of faint surprise, then they lowered again. "Me? What do you mean?"

"You said I should let them come here... That they might be hiding something... Ichijouji and Akiyama were very open, though..." She shrugged. "I suppose... Both of these guys are weird... Ryou is the same as ever ("And I _still_ can't stand him..."), and this Ichijouji.... I mean, he came out of a _television_ show. Or at least that's what Takato and Lee say. And you," she looked at Renamon now, almost suspiciously. "You keep looking at that 'worm'." A funny idea came to mind, the edges of her lips curling slightly. "You don't have a _crush_ on that _Stingmon_, do you?"

Renamon seemed unfazed my the comment, but her eyes had flickered slightly. She got that look in her eye every time she met a new opponent in battle... "Of course not." She looked away toward the door. "I just sense something..." Ruki was going to comment on this, but Renamon added, "And you're acting strangely with Ryou."

Ruki's eyes widen, then her face scrunched into a scowl. She could feel her face heating. "He's... he's a _jerk_... But he's different I suppose. There's something very different about him..." There must be, if he was about to beat her in a card tournament... Something no one before him had ever done. Urgh, she _hated_ the way Renamon was watching her so intently...

__

No, she didn't "like" Ryou, not in _that_ way. Or at least she didn't _want_ to... But when again... she _had_ backed down from denying them permission to come to her home... It made Ruki feel weak... It was embarrassing... Lee and Takato would get the wrong idea.

'Weakling....'

She shivered, a sudden chill touching her spin. What was _that_...? Ruki remembered something like that happening when Icedevimon was around... But he was long gone....

Ruki soon realized that she'd taken to long to answer. "It's nothing like that," Ruki continued quickly, turning away. "You don't have anything to worry about, really." 

Renamon was silent, Ruki could tell she was thinking, then said sighed... sadly? 

Ruki looked at her partner, surprised. "Renamon...?"

"I am afraid for you, Ruki," Renamon said quietly. "I feel that things are going to happen... Bad things... Something will try to take you from me again, and I might not be strong enough to protect you." She stood, walking for the door. The shadows seemed to follow and wrap around her. "But I _will_ try, even if I am destroyed in the process....."

Ruki was feeling confused, a pang of fear hitting her. What could possibly be so terrible that even Renamon was afraid to battle...? Would another digimon come along and try to clam her as their Tamer? _What_? "What is it? What's coming...?" Renamon didn't respond. "Renamon?"

"Even I don't know what it is, Ruki... But maybe these boys do."

Ichijouji and Akiyama...? What would they know? Are they hiding something after all?

"Trust them, Ruki. I believe they can be trusted..." Then she was gone, leaving Ruki to wonder what she'd meant....

She sighed, closing her eyes. "I'll trust _you_ Renamon..."

"What?"

Ruki's eyes shot open to find Ken standing in the doorway wearing the pajamas she'd brought him. They were oversized and bunched up at the sleeves and at his feet, but that hardly mattered.

She frowned. "Is there something you need?"

Ken looked unsure for a moment, but gave her a warm, friendly smile. This was a sudden change from the quiet politeness he'd displayed a moment ago... Why the sudden change? Ruki then noticed Ken held something in his hand. A card deck bound tightly by a rubber band...

"Where'd you get that," she demanded, pointing at the object in question. It was her old digimon card deck. She hadn't used it in ages... Ruki kept a lot of her old stuff in boxes in the guest room, but Ken must've found it amongst the junk... 

Ken looked down at the deck in his hand, holding it up. "I was wondering it you could tell me about this."

Ruki eyed him for a moment... He didn't _look_ like a threat really... But he was unusually... nice (harmless, even). But not in a regular way, it was... Something...

She found herself feeling very uncomfortable at he waited for her to answer patently. "It's a card game, if you must know. A digimon card game."

Ken's smile widened. "It's so _strange_," he looked at the deck, reading over the front of the first card on top, "it's like I'm in a dream or something... I don't think anyone in my would has thought of a card came yet, just a video game..."

Just kick him out, make him go _away_, back to his room... But she couldn't bring herself to do it. 

"Can you show me how to play," he asked.

Ruki blinked. "What?"

"Can you show me how to play," he repeated, his smile fading a bit. "I thought it might be fun..." Ken looked suddenly embarrassed, his eyes shifting toward the floor. "You know..."

Ruki felt tired, _very_ tired in fact. "Why don't you go to sleep or something? Where's the wor-Wormmon." She corrected herself at the last moment, which made Ken's eyes light up for some reason. 'Why am I being so _nice_ to him...?' Takato may be haven't more of a effect on her personality than she thought...

"Wormmon's asleep," he explained. Ken stood just outside the room, and didn't look like he was going to enter unless invited. "I'm not too tired anymore..." He smiled sheepishly. "Well, considering it's probably about 7:00 a.m. in the summertime where I'm from, my circadian rhythm's a bit off..." He waved the cards at her hopefully. "I can't hurt, can it?"

Silence....

/"Trust them, Ruki..."/

'Renamon....'

Finally, she let out a long, low groan, snatching the cards from his hand. "I can't believe I'm doing this..." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lee smiled welcomingly as he opened the door to his room, clicking on the light switch. "Here it is. I can make a place to sleep on the floor. You can have the bed."

Ryou stepped inside, looking around. "Thanks, but I can take the floor..."

"It's only polite," Lee said simply, heading right for the bed. He began pulling it apart and removing the covers and blankets. "Are your clothes still wet?" He noted that Ryou was still trembling from being out in the cold again. He was going to die of pneumonia or something... Sure, Lee was still wet, but at least he had a few layers of protection on. Ryou only had a shirt and pants and no jacket. "You should change into something warm..." He threw the blankets to the floor, placing a very tired Terriermon down on them. He smiled. "You look exhausted, Terriermon." 

In response Terriermon yawned loudly and slumped down into the brackets. 

Lee chuckled at this, glancing over to Ryou. "I'll look for extra blankets and pillows. Just whatever you do, make sure you don't end up waking my sister. If she _ever_ sees Chibimon, act like he's a stuffed animal."

Ryou nodded. "Sure." He placed his bag on the floor, cradling a sleeping Chibimon in his arms. Chibimon snored gently, his mouth wide open. But Ryou only smiled endearingly at this behavior. This reminded Lee of himself was with Terriermon at times...

"I'll be right back." Lee left the room quickly to look for futon, if he could find a clean one. Walking so he didn't make too much noise, he reached the closet and began looking around. After finding three extra blankets and a pillow, he slipped into his father's room to grab a pair of night clothes. Lee's would probably be too small for Ryou. The boy didn't seem that much older than him, but he was taller, and of a wider build. But his father's would surly fit fairly well enough for him. 

Mr. Lee wouldn't be back until late. It seems that tonight was one of "those nights" where he would have to work late (Mr. Lee had left him a note on the door), probably due to the mass power outage. His father wouldn't mind having a guest over, anyway. It'd been a while since Lee had invited anyone over to stay.

After grabbing a few items from his father's dresser, Lee returned to his room to find that Ryou had set Chibimon on his bed. The digimon was fast asleep, murmuring incoherently (drooling onto the blankets... _urk_...). Terriermon was also fast asleep on the floor, one of his ears tucked around himself like a blanket. Ryou sat on the floor right next to the bed, frowning as he examined his laptop carefully. It looked ruined... 

Lee spoke up quietly as to not startle Ryou. "Can you fix it...?"

Ryou nodded, but didn't looked up or appear "startled" in any way. "If I can get to right replacement parts for the ones that fried. The system was still running when it got wet, so..." He grimaced slightly as he turned the machine a bit sideways. Drops on water were seen falling form its edge. "I don't know how much water's in there, but I'm surprised. I thought it could handle something like that a lot better. But I _have_ had it for a long time..." He trailed off for a moment before cursing. "I think the Mother Board's dead... I'll need a new one." The expression on his face of that of disappointment, but now necessary of loss.

Lee didn't know too much about computers (Well, at least not as much as his dad), but he did know what a Mother Board is. "Dad may have one or two from work. I'm not sure if they're the right ones, but you can ask when he gets back." He dumped the sheets and clothes down into the floor. 

Ryou look up this time, smiling. "What sort of computer stuff does your father do?"

He shrugged, picking up his dad's pajamas. They were nothing more than plaid pants and a sweater, but they were warm. "He helped originally designed the digimon computer games," he explained, earning an extremely surprised look from Ryou. "Now he does a lot of programming and things like that..." Lee offered the clothes to Ryou. "Here, you really need to get out of those clothes."

Ryou took the clothes and nodded, glancing down at himself. "I'm fine, really. I mean I don't think I'll get sick." He set his dead laptop aside and stood, looking down at his own wet clothes. "Should I go to the bathroom, or...?"

Lee turned away. "You can just change, I won't look." He quickly busied himself with unbuttoning his winter jacket. He had rushed out earlier that night without bothering to change into regular clothes. Now Lee hurried to his closet to find new pajamas for himself. He quickly discarded his still damp night clothes and replaced them with new ones. It only took a second, and when he looked back, he found that Ryou was dressed as well and back to fiddling with his laptop. 

Ryou's wet clothes were draped over his desk chair. Lee had been right, his dad's clothes were a little oversized for Ryou, but not by much. The neck of the sweater was a little wide, and the pants nearly covered his feet they were so long, but Ryou didn't seem to care in the slightest. Not only that, but is was as if he were trying to ignore everything. Ryou seemed determined not to look at him. Something about the way he was fiddling with his useless laptop gave Lee the impression that he was nervous. Maybe he wasn't comfortable being at Lee's house?

Tentatively, Lee sat down on the floor next to the sleeping Terriermon, a few feet away from Ryou. "I'm sorry about your machine." This didn't get him a response, however. Ryou just gave a small noise, indicating that he indeed _had_ heard Lee, but that was it. ".... You can use my computer if you want." 

This made Ryou look up, surprised. "Can I? You wouldn't mind?"

Lee smiled. "Of course. You can do whatever you want... Just don't open any random digiports..." Ryou gave him a soar look, but was silent, gazing at the floor again. Lee really wanted to know what he was thinking... "What...?

"I'm not used to this," he said quietly. "Being at someone's house.... and with someone I hardly know. With Monodramon somewhere, probably in trouble..." Ryou trailed off, but in a moment he stood, setting his laptop aside and took a seat at Lee's computer. He turned on the modem, letting it warm up. "Thanks."

There was a long silence where Lee got himself comfortable among his blankets, careful not to disturb Terriermon. He wanted to sleep, but his mind was still very awake (if that made any sense). The computer loaded, and he listened to the rapid clicking and shifting of the mouse. 

Lee wanted to talk to him, wanted to know him. It wasn't everyday something like this happens... That a cartoon comes jumping into the real world.

He glanced at Terriermon and smirked. 

A _human_ character, anyway... Though, Ken was the only one really "not of this world". Ryou liked in Hokkaido... He had seemed to nice and even cheerful when Ken was there, but now Ryou was so quiet, so closed... He hadn't tried making a conversation during the whole time they'd been around each other, even though it hadn't been long. Even Takato hadn't gotten that much out of Ryou... He seemed so down after leaving Ken at Ruki's house...

Lee was beginning to see how true it was that this Akiyama Ryou was the same one from the game... Exactly. It was unreal. The knowledge of computers, the quietness... His protectiveness of Ken...

And all at once, something clicked in Lee's head. "You don't trust us, do you, Ryou?"

Silence.

Lee looked up to find that Ryou's hand had stilled over the mouse before moving again. Ryou's voice was calm and even as he spoke, "I have no reason to... Sorry."

He felt a small chill run down his spin. Lee couldn't help but be both offended and unnerved by Ryou's words. "And what about Ken...?"

"What about Ken?"

"You trust him."

"Ken..." Ryou smiled faintly. "He has my trust." He glanced at Lee with a warning look, as it daring him to consider that Ken could be untrustworthy. "And I still don't like that he was left with Ruki." His distrust and even slight dislike for Ruki was obvious even now.

"But we haven't done anything to you."

"Not yet you haven't." Lee wasn't sure how to respond to this, then Ryou continued. "I've known people--who I trusted with my _life_--that betrayed me and left be to a possibly horrible fate.... I thought they were my friends, but..." He stopped suddenly, and there was silence again.

Lee didn't know what to say... Then he remembered Ryou in one of the video games... The D-1 Tournament. Right after Ken was hit by the Dark Seed, and Ryou took care of him. Then Millenniumon dragged him away or something, and Ryou entered the Tournament, but it was all a set up... Gennai, Taichi, Mimi, Koushiro, all of them were in on it... He had to fight Moon=Millenniumon....

That sort of thing takes time to get over...

Lee sighed, laying back on his bed. Ryou took no notice of him, but Lee said, "Goodnight, Akiyama-san," before letting his thoughts follow him into sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a few minutes, Ryou glanced back to see if the boy had fallen asleep yet. He smirked slightly in satisfaction to find that he was indeed fast asleep on the floor, Terriermon close to him. Chibimon was curled up on a pillow, nesting quietly.

Turning back to the screen, he starred at it for a time... Thinking...

So much had happened to Ken while he was gone... A lot of things that he didn't know about... And Ken clearly didn't remember everything that happened, otherwise he wouldn't have been so happy to see Ryou again... Ken had too many reasons to hate him...

But from Ryou understood, the answers were at his fingertips... He could just go to "search" on the computer, and type "digimon", "Ichijouji Ken", and find any sorta of information he wanted... Find out exactly what had happened after he had to leave Ken alone with the Millenniummon's Dark Seed... After the Digital World he returned to with Monodramon changed from what it had been...

Though... that's not the way he wasn't to find out... If anything, he wanted Ken to be the one to tell him everything... To explain things to him.

Shaking his head, Ryou abandoned the thought of searching for Ken's past on the internet, and instead went in search for a good online chat room... He was sure this computer had at least on or two games to help kill the times as well. Something to take his mind off of reality (as crazy as it always was) just for a little bit.

To take his mind off the bond between him and Ken... How their hearts were beating as one once more..

No, that would wait. At least until tomorrow...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you sure?" Yamaki looked between the photographs taken by operatives that night while the boy walked along the streets with the Jenrya Lee boy. "Are you positive?"

"Absolutely, sire. The boy goes by the name of Akiyama Ryou. His current residency is in Hokkaido."

Yamaki huffed. "I bit far from home, isn't he?" He threw these pictures aside, leaning back in his seat. "And the other boy? What of him?"

"We... haven't been able to get a good look at him, sir. None of us can risk nearing the residence if those creatures around about. I'm sure if he leaves the girls house we will be able to identify him."

"I'm sure..." 

Silence....

"Sir...? If we are unable to positively identify him... If it turns out he doesn't 'exist'..."

Yamaki gave the man a hard look. "Then I want him obtained immediately for questioning. If he-_it_, is not of this world, Hypnos would very much like to know from what world he _does_ come from..."

"But _sir_, that's kidnap-"

"It isn't a kidnapping if he doesn't exist in the first place. I have my orders, and you have yours. Do your job unless you want trouble."

".... Yes sir..."

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To be Continued in Chapter Seven: The Real World...

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So....? What do you think? New "look"? (heeh) REVIEW if you have the chance!

Oh, and I have _one_ beta reader, but I don't know how often she will be able to do it for me. Would anyone be willing to be a beta for future chapters, or willing to beta the ones I've already written? It would be a great help, really. If so and you're a registered author, please send a review, or if not, please send an email. Thanks.

I'm starting college in barely a _week_, so I don't know how long it will take me to get another chapter out. Please be patent. And thank you to all who've reviewed!

Geuna~


	9. Announcement!!!

PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU, DO NOT REVIEW HERE!!! 

I want to make an important announcement. I start school THIS coming Monday. Please don't expect chapters as quickly as before, but believe me, I'm still going to be working on them as always. And thanks for the reviews, as always. Them mean I lot.

Thank you,

Geuna~


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